WASHINGTON DC -Deadly pathogens lying dormant in centuries-old Arctic permafrost could become the latest threat from global climate change.
The potential release of the pathogens has seized the attention of federal government scientists, medical professionals and Pentagon officials. Pathogens – disease-causing organisms – have been trapped for centuries in frozen ground across the Arctic, including vast swaths of Alaska, Canada and Russia. Climate change has had a big impact on the far north, where temperatures have risen at two to four times the rate of the rest of the world.
No this isn’t the premise for a Sci-Fi movie, but potentially a huge threat to humanity.
Global warming has opened sea lanes in the Arctic, and increased competition from U.S. adversaries like China and Russia. In response, the Pentagon has been sending more troops and warplanes to Alaska. The military also conducts some of its largest-scale exercises in Alaska involving thousands of airmen, soldiers and sailors. Keeping them healthy is the Pentagon’s responsibility and a national security imperative.
Warming temperatures across the globe could unleash a slew of microbes whose impact on humans, plants and animals is unknown.
“We know there’s bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens that are in permafrost,” said Jill Brandenberger, climate security research lead at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “We know that upon thaw, all three of those classes of pathogens could be released. What we don’t know is how viable it is for them to stay alive and then infect.”
