Ant killed by Cordyceps fungus. Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Carbon Brief Issues a “The Last of Us” Climate Warning

Essay by Eric Worrall

Fungal Fiction mimicking fiction?

Guest post: Fungal infections are adapting to climate change – and threatening public health

Fungi are learning to adapt to climate change, posing a major threat to human health.

Fungi are known for their ability to adjust to – and thrive in – new and changing environments.

Now, they are learning to adapt to the rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns and extreme weather events that characterise a warming planet. 

Historically, most fungi do not cause disease in humans, meaning they are not “pathogenic”.

This is because – unlike viruses and bacteria – most fungi cannot survive or spread in body temperatures of 37C. 

But, as global temperatures rise, some fungi are adapting to survive in hotter environments, including the human body. 

Read more: https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-fungal-infections-are-adapting-to-climate-change-and-threatening-public-health/

The article goes on to give a new WHO monitoring programme a plug.

How can anyone take claims like this seriously? The Carbon brief article is straight out of the plot of “The Last of Us”, a hit series about fungus attacking humans and turning humans into hybrid zombies, all because of global warming.

While our body heat does provide a barrier against fungal infection, it is not much of a barrier. Immunocompromised people suffer horrible problems from fungus infections – their body heat does not protect them.

Fungal infections in immunocompromised critically ill patients

Author links open overlay panelJosé Garnacho-Montero

, Irene Barrero-García

José Garnacho-Montero, Irene Barrero-García, Cristina León-Moya

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jointm.2024.01.005Get rights and content

Abstract

Diverse pathogenic fungi can produce severe infections in immunocompromised patients, thereby justifying intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. In some cases, the infections can develop in immunocompromised patients who were previously admitted to the ICU. Aspergillus spp., Pneumocystis jirovecii, Candida spp., and Mucorales are the fungi that are most frequently involved in these infections. Diagnosis continues to be challenging because symptoms and signs are unspecific. Herein, we provide an in-depth review about the diagnosis, with emphasis on recent advances, and treatment of these invasive fungal infections in the ICU setting.

Read more: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667100X2400015X

I enjoyed watching series one of “The Last of Us”, it was a great zombie story. I loved the apocalyptic final episode of series one – reminiscent of great Western movies like “Unforgiven”. But to watch such fiction in comfort you have to park your scientific skepticism with the opening credits.

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September 25, 2025 10:33 am

From the article: “Fungi are learning to adapt to climate change, posing a major threat to human health.”

What climate change? You mean that “con job” President Trump is talking about? Didn’t you hear, Trump?

Reply to  Tom Abbott
September 26, 2025 4:48 am

“Didn’t you hear, Trump?”

Well, if Trump said it, I suppose it must be true.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Bellman
September 26, 2025 8:05 am

More true than if Mann said something. But that’s not saying much.

Mr.
September 25, 2025 10:58 am

If  “The Last of Us” was a prediction or commitment issued by the climate caterwauling cult indicating that they were abandoning the field of proper scientific appreciation and reportage, this would be the best news in 30 years.

(Mind you, the desperation in their reportage in recent times could indicate that they actually are beginning to realize and accept that the “the biggest scam in human history” is falling apart at the seams).

Westfieldmike
September 25, 2025 11:21 am

What climate change? Where is it?

Reply to  Westfieldmike
September 25, 2025 11:46 am

Mistake; tried to delete comment but don’t know how.

Reply to  Oldseadog
September 25, 2025 12:23 pm

No need to delete the comments because you are asking the right questions.

If you want to delete a reply to a comment, in the reply comment box move the mouse pointer to the lower right and click on the small gear wheel when it appears. Then click on manage comment tab and then edit. Use the backspace key to delete all the text. Lastly, click on reply to comment. The reply comment box will then disappear.

Reply to  Harold Pierce
September 26, 2025 4:33 pm

HP:
Thanks for the tutorial.
Now: How to add a graphic to the comment or reply?
I’ve tried Copy & Paste but no luck.

SxyxS
September 25, 2025 11:27 am

Seems all spezies either adept and become an increased threat or go extinct in the world of global warming.
instead of simply ignoring it as there is nothing to adept to in a 1 degree warming scenario on a planet where animals inhabit areas between -50 and + 50 degrees celsius.
A minor fluctuation won’t do crap.

And even if region X becomes 1 degree warmer it will just have the same temperature as the neighboring region that is 250 miles closer to the equator.
Which means that those ” warmer” conditions already exist somewhere and if funghi haven’t adapted to them in 1.5 billion years why should they now especially when 90% of that time the climate used to be hotter than it is now.

Reply to  SxyxS
September 25, 2025 11:50 am

“spezies” should be “species” and “funghi” should be “fungi”

What OS are you running ? I am using MS 11 which has a spelling checker. If I misspell a word, the spelling checker places a wavy red line under it.

If after posting a comment, you can correct typos and misspelling or add additional info. Place the mouse pointer, over the small gear wheel in the lower right corner of the comment box and follow the instructions. You have a five minute window for making corrections after posting a comment.

SxyxS
Reply to  Harold Pierce
September 25, 2025 1:55 pm

My English would drive any spellchecker crazy.

And I’m using a device that is 12 years old.
No spellchecking.
But I’m always greatful for some corrections.(and the word funghi is correct in Italian.Guess I will never get the Menucard version from the pizzarestaurant out of my head)

Reply to  SxyxS
September 25, 2025 2:53 pm

But I’m always greatful for some corrections”

OK.. not as if I don’t make enough errors and typos myself..;-)

“grateful”… not “greatful”

and in your original post, 5th word, it should be “adapt” not “adept”, which has a totally different meaning

SxyxS
Reply to  bnice2000
September 26, 2025 1:42 am

Thx.
Hope Grateful Dead fans can forgive me.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  SxyxS
September 26, 2025 6:11 am

They don’t have any brain cells left anyway, so don’t worry.

Reply to  SxyxS
September 25, 2025 3:29 pm

My laptop is brand new Lenovo which my son bought for me which came with MS 11. He installed an ad blocker. Do you have an ad blocker?

Reply to  Harold Pierce
September 25, 2025 10:11 pm

Please don’t use an ad blocker for WUWT, or if you do, subscribe.

Ads and subscriptions are the only things keeping WUWT going.

Thanks

SxyxS
Reply to  Harold Pierce
September 26, 2025 1:40 am

No.Neither do I have a son.

I have access to newer devices , but for a bit of commenting my old one is enough.
(and don’t listen to Redge.
The ads here are worse than my English.
Rather donate to WUWT than dealing with that stuff)

Reply to  SxyxS
September 26, 2025 8:47 am

I think Redge’s point is, don’t block ads unless you financially support WUWT – which if you donate, you do.

Reply to  Tony_G
September 26, 2025 10:43 pm

Exactly

TBeholder
Reply to  SxyxS
September 26, 2025 5:09 pm

And then there are seasons and day cycle. To not get it naturally one should be raised in a thermostat environment.
Hmm. More evidence that those people are either space tourists or runaway experiments (as in «Dr. Stein grows funny creatures, Lets them run into the night»).

September 25, 2025 11:28 am

What climate change? These people should go to Wikipedia to learn about the Köppen Climate Classification System. There are hundreds of distinct climates around the world. When you say “climate change”, you have to specify what region of the earth you are referring to. For example, the Sahara desert. Has there been any climate change in the last 100 years?

In some regions of the earth, desertification can cause local climate change there. Urbanization can effect local climates due to the UHI effect.

You also have to undertake a comprehensive survey of the flora and fauna in the region and then consult historical records to determine if there has been any notable changes in these.

Most of the climates of the earth are water, ice, snow, rocks, and sand. Activities of humans are not going effect the climates of the vast Pacific ocean or the Rocky mountains.

Mr.
Reply to  Harold Pierce
September 26, 2025 3:52 am

110% agree.

drednicolson
September 25, 2025 11:34 am

Fungus grows on your tongue all the time (it’s one of the main causes of bad breath). Normally your immune system keeps it under control, but in the case of full-blown AIDS or other immunodeficiency, it can grow unchecked and have to be literally scraped off.

Reply to  drednicolson
September 25, 2025 12:39 pm

Didn’t know that. As long as mushrooms don’t grow out of our backs, like the image at the top of this article. 🙂

Reply to  drednicolson
September 25, 2025 12:57 pm

Bacteria grow in your mouth and on your tongue not fungi, and cause halitosis. The bacteria can be easily wiped out with mouth wash

strativarius
September 25, 2025 11:41 am

Argh. Do me a lemon, not another climageddon nonsense story.

September 25, 2025 11:45 am

Climate change is global warming.

Global warming is an average result. That must mean some areas are warmer and some are cooler.

Does fungus respond to averages? The article claims it does or they wouldn’t have said so.

This must mean that fungus in areas which are getting cooler will lose any ability to infect other life forms.

Reply to  doonman
September 25, 2025 1:13 pm

Or even areas that “haven’t warmed,” if the fungi have “adapted to” warmer temperatures.

September 25, 2025 12:30 pm

Fungi are known for their ability to adjust to – and thrive in – new and changing environments.

Now, they are learning to adapt to the rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns and extreme weather events that characterise a warming planet. 

That’s a truly nitwit statement. Fungi are everywhere. They aren’t “learning” anything and they aren’t “adjusting”.

Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
September 25, 2025 1:55 pm

I would dare say that fungi have far more intelligence than the average climate worrier.! 😉

Reply to  bnice2000
September 25, 2025 10:14 pm

I like to say about the climate worriers, “bang their collective heads together, and they still wouldn’t have the intelligence of a single amoeba”.

September 25, 2025 12:33 pm

The Carbon brief article is straight out of the plot of “The Last of Us”, a hit series about fungus attacking humans and turning humans into hybrid zombies, all because of global warming.

Reminds me of the ’50s horror film, “The Blob”. 🙂

Sparta Nova 4
September 25, 2025 12:59 pm

At ease disease, the fungus is among us.

One of my Dad’s favorites.

September 25, 2025 1:14 pm

It was warmer than today in the 1930s. Why hasn’t humanity been wiped out by these adaptive fungi by now?

Reply to  AGW is Not Science
September 25, 2025 10:14 pm

Because this time it really, really will happen.

September 25, 2025 1:52 pm

Considering most of the last 10,000 years was warmer than now….

…where are all these killer fungi ???

How did humans exist and prosper is such a mouldy world.

September 25, 2025 2:08 pm

Fungi don’t seem to be affecting world wide crop production.

World Cereal Output Set For all-Time High | NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

September 25, 2025 2:59 pm

Methinks these clowns have consumed too many “Shrooms”

September 25, 2025 3:05 pm

If a fungus can adapt to grow in the human body it does not need warmer temperatures to do it. Fungus spores are everywhere, humans have been around for thousands of years, there’s like billions of us living in every climate zone there is, encountering every fungus there is.

If the fungi could adapt to human beings they would have already.

Reply to  davidmhoffer
September 25, 2025 3:40 pm

Athlete’s foot and nail fungus are two species the are prevalent in humans. I see ads on the TV for nail fungus cures.

Reply to  Harold Pierce
September 26, 2025 7:31 am

Yup, I had a nail fungus on a big toe. Tried all sorts of treatments, wound up removing the nail. No big deal not having it and that fungus can only live between the nail and the nail bed so its gone. Athlete’s foot is around too but its pretty easy to treat.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  davidmhoffer
September 26, 2025 6:14 am

humans have been around for thousands of years”

Or millions…

Bob
September 25, 2025 3:53 pm

There is a reason they are turning to crap like this, they have lost the serious argument and they know it.

spren
September 25, 2025 5:20 pm

Because of their adaptability fungi have shown they are fungible to changing temperatures.

Edward Katz
September 25, 2025 6:09 pm

So now it’s the fungi that are adapting to climate change and not just everything else under the sun that the alarmists claim will destroy civilization. Except maybe there’s no threat at all from an occurrence that the planet has seen on a regular basis going back thousands of years; and despite the climate crisis myth, maybe humans and the other living things here are too resourceful, creative and adaptable for it to affect them regardless.

September 25, 2025 6:36 pm

If fungi can adapt to climate change, why can’t humans?

September 25, 2025 10:16 pm

This craziness is mushrooming.

(Someone had to say it)

TBeholder
Reply to  Redge
September 27, 2025 3:21 am

Or at least cribbing hacks pop up like mushrooms after a rain.

Jeff Alberts
September 26, 2025 8:09 am

The Carbon brief article is straight out of the plot of “The Last of Us”, a hit series about fungus attacking humans and turning humans into hybrid zombies, all because of global warming.”

The series was based on a video game, in which there was no mention of he actual cause(s) of the outbreak, to my knowledge. So CC was the lefty message in the series.

Besides, Pedro Pascal is a giant lefty, and is frankly poor casting, based on the Joel character in the games.

TBeholder
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
September 27, 2025 3:23 am

The “creative collaborative community” — being “creative” via being “collaborative”, as usual.

conrad ziefle
September 27, 2025 4:41 pm

So if they are adaptive and adjusting to the new higher temperatures. Then it would be fair to assume that they had already adjusted to the old steady-state ( in climate theory) temperatures, therefore the challenge of new hotter temperatures is at least keeping them struggling to adapt and therefore keeping us safer than if they had the old climate, which they already had adapted to. Thank you, Mr. Climate Scientist, for relieving my fear of body-eating fungi.