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The Top 5 Nastiest Creatures Getting Stronger Due To Climate Change |
26 Comments |
| By Michael d'Estries in Climate Change, Green Living | September 29, 2007 | ||
When some people think of Global Warming, a vision of comfortable winters, more days at the beach, and less sweaters comes to mind. For those living away from coastal regions, the concerns of hurricanes or sea levels is non-existent. Out of sight, out of mind.
The realities are that climate change will affect each and every one of us. From the ways our communities rely on food produced in other states and nations; to the costs of energy and sourcing of water. But it gets worse. Much worse. We now present to you The Top 5 Nasty Creatures Getting Stronger Due To Climate Change. Some of them seem straight out of science fiction.
Brain-Eating Killer Amoeba
Back in grade school we all thought amoeba were the innocent fat blobs sharing space with paramecium and hydras under the microscope. No longer. 6 Americans have died this year, all young men, from a strain of amoeba that attaches itself to the inside of your nose and quickly burrows through your brain. Scientists are considering this death toll a spike; since only 23 people in the US were killed between 1995 and 2004. “This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better,” specialist Michael Beach said. “In future decades, as temperatures rise, we’d expect to see more cases.” Great. Keep plugging your nose when going underwater. So far, Florida, Arizona, and Texas have had the most cases. [Associated Press]
The False Black Widow Spider
As if the real Black Widow spider wasn’t enough to deal with; there’s an impostor out there moving across the warming United Kingdom and sending grown men to the hospital. Generally, this little guy wouldn’t cause so much trouble, since the UK’s cold winters kept populations in check. However, thanks to warmer temperatures, their numbers have rocketed into the hundreds of thousands and spreading north to new locales. Apparently, the pain is more severe than a bee or wasp sting and can lead burning sensations, inflammation, and a couple days in the hospital. Worse, they love to hide in gloves or other clothing accessories and will bite almost immediately. Great. [The Daily Mail]
Deadly Irukandji Jellyfish
Australia has some incredible beaches and swimming/snorkeling areas. Millions come every year to enjoy the Great Barrier Reef and other popular marine haunts. Sure, sharks have always been a concern, but a new deadly organism is spreading and raising alarm in areas once thought safe for recreational activities. Call the Irukandji — this nasty, translucent jellyfish (about the size of a thumbnail) is one of the most toxic creatures on the planet. Due to warming oceans, the jellyfish are now 400 miles further south from their previously known habitat. “We don’t want a perception to spread that every Sunshine Coast beach is a killing field,” said Daniel Gschwind, the head of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council. I’ll stick to a pool, thanks. [The Telegraph]
The Disease-Bearing Mosquito, Tick, and Mouse
Your standard nasty critters are getting upgrades in the form of deadly diseases and life-altering viruses. Carriers like mosquitoes, ticks, mice are surviving warmer winters and expanding their range. Malaria is reaching higher elevations, Cholera is spreading in warm waters, and Dengue fever and Lyme disease are moving north. The West Nile virus has infected more than 21,000 people in the United States and Canada and killed more than 800. As one biologist said, “Things we projected to occur in 2080 are happening in 2006. What we didn’t get is how fast and how big it is, and the degree to which the biological systems would respond. Our mistake was in underestimation.”
[The Washington Post]
Vibrio Vulnificus — The Flesh Eating Bug
A flesh-eating bacterium that normally makes its home in the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico is now headed into the cooler Northern areas of the world. According to MSNBC, recent tests in Germany showed that Vibrio vulnificus was present in more than nine out of 10 samples of Baltic Sea water. The microscopic marine bug enters the human system through a cut or scrape (and even through ingestion) and devours flesh along the way. About 50% of cases are fatal; with patients dying within the first 48 hours of infection.
awesome cant wait :( said,
Great list but now my day is ruined. I was thinking of putting off a global backpacking trip till next year but now im thinking that I should do it this year since logically problems will on get worse.
My big concern in the US is that we will start having malaria carrying mosquitoes
Uncle B said,
Dammit! and I thought Smith and Wesson had solved all the world’s problems.
Amy said,
Very interesting…now I’m scared though.
leslie swank said,
Every thing we know about the earths decline and mans
effects on it is through sites like this and (if you can believe) the media..It is immparitive to saturate any and all ways to get the message accross to the masses…LWS
Mike Fox said,
Well, you know, nature has to balance man out somehow. I see the forces at work in this list as a good thing, like predation or limited resources. Mankind can only effect our world so much before it starts to fight back … like other population limits, is a good thing.
Jeff said,
Good luck to the amoeba finding food in the deep south.
Ted Powell said,
“The Disease-Borne Mosquito, Tick, and Mouse”
I can visualize a mosquito-borne disease, but a disease-borne mosquito (or tick, or mouse) strains credibility. Surely you meant: “The Disease-bearing Mosquito, Tick, and Mouse”?
Since your comment submission button is labelled “Submit Query” here is a query:
Why is there no Preview button?
eruvande said,
@ #6:
I am from rural Mississippi.
When I was a child, a little boy in a neighboring school’s gifted program caught one of these “brain-eating amoebas” and was dead within 2 weeks. It destroyed his very real and very lively brain, leaving his family bereaved and a county full of young schoolchildren terrified to go swimming.
Perhaps a bit OT, but this kind of thing infuriates me. Please think next time before you spew the sort of bigotry of which you accuse others.
Askabarr said,
Another example of the domino effect of global warming; this one however has a bit more “bite”. I agree with some of my fellow Stumblers; this not the end of consequence but more like the beginning.
Roberto said,
Can you also publish a list also of the top 5 nastiest creatures that are getting weaker due to global warming? Or better yet, a list of top 5 cutest creatures that are getting stronger and healthy with global warming?
Magnus Andersson said,
This is phony! Mosquitos wont be able to breed when the ground gets dryer. It will get dryer in a warmer climate.
BTW: The Malaria was common in the little ice age in Europa and US, and was successfully stopped in Europe the middle of the 20th century and would be stopped also in Africa soon, due to scintists in the field.)
There is good reason to say all the examples are Donald Duck intelligent propaganda for stupids. It’s sad most ppl seems to be stupid and uniformed by real scinece. They believe in this stupid propaganda instead.
BTW we wont get on more warming than 0.2 degrees C. And this is just sad for the human race and for life on earth. All warmer periods in history — the last 10000 years or the former interglacier period 120000 years ago — was all very good with less extreme weather and healthy conditions in all ways. Just check the scientific reports on this matter! I have!
Magnus Andersson said,
The mosquitos in Scandinavia is most common in the relatively cold north! This is because it’s cold and more humid on the ground so they can breed there. Actually the great many mosquitos is a large problem in the north but not even present in the southern Sweden, almost Stockholm included. I have genuine own experience both in northern and southern Sweden, and I can assure you this is the truth.
E.g. in relatively cold Russia there was a Malaria outbreak in the 1920s with 16 million sick and 600000 dead.
I hope the stupidity of yours will retreat like glaciers by this facts… Gaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!
Magnus Andersson said,
Roberto: I can’t imagine these alarming morons can help you with nthat task. They don’t care if they are wrong on their propaganda; this particular propaganda.
When it comes to Mosquitos, the world leading expert that wrote reports to IPCC (Paul Reiter) did complain that IPCC:s conclusion was the opposite to the scintific papers that was produced. He was shocked and didn’t wanted his name in the IPCC report. This conflicts with IPCC has happend and happens continiously and in almost every fields of science.
Now Paul Reiter is debunked as a Global Warming denier, just because he can’t accept to have his name in papers which claims things that has nothing to do with science in the particular area of field. He don’t care so much, since he still knows what science say and that IPCC is non-scientific, but this is really a sort of modern inquisition.
I’m quite sure it gonna get colder the coming decades due to the weakest sunspot cycles in more than 150 years. This is good for the end of the inquisition, but the stupid mankind I’m afraid gonna produce more stupidities, like a perpetum mobile. But warming would have been a lot better for mankind and the spieces.
[actual scientist] said,
It seems you are the one who has bought into the propaganda, magnus. Soon enough, climate change will be impossible for anyone to deny.
We know that mosquitoes are not active until temperatures rise above 45degrees F or so, but the hotter the better. That is why malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses are way more prevalent in the tropics. “Scintists” in the field are helpless to stop it, it’s an unwinnable numbers game. The only thing that could be done to curb disease rates in Africa is to create more sanitary conditions, so that the mosquitoes that are bound to increase in numbers would be less likely to carry disease.
The ice core record shows a remarkable correlation between CO2 levels and global temperature over hundreds of thousands of years. Solar cycles are indeed a factor, but atmospheric greenhouse gas contributions at the current levels are a far stronger warming influence than any cooling provided by solar sunspot variations. The planet will continue to warm, probably for as long as you live.
If you’re going to try to convince people of some scientific facts on climate change, you might want to try reading a Wikipedia article or two.
arielle the amaaziing. said,
global warming is not real.
Brian said,
Hey actual scientists, you seem to be the idiot here, most wikipedia articles are false and are written by other propagandists. Roberto is right, if you want to prove to me that this is not proganda then also show me the list of creatures that are getting weaker not just the ones that are getting stronger. Being a scientist means showing both the good and bad of any experiment not just high lighting the facts that support your hypothesis.
ruso said,
MAN KIND IS ENDING AS WE KNOW IT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
kgjg said,
Things are always balancing. Pre-industrial nature was much nastier for us then than it is/will be.
.Water warms up and gets full of large amounts mammal excrement then mosquitos expect mosquitos and microbial nasties to be breeding in large numbers and evolving rapidly because of it. If mosquitos manage to become the size of hummingbirds then I will put on my panic cap.
Magnus said,
“We know that mosquitoes are not active until temperatures rise above 45degrees F or so, but the hotter the better. That is why malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses are way more prevalent in the tropics.”
Sorry “[actual scientist]“, but malaria was a disease which killed 600000 and made 16 millions sick in Russia in the 1920a and was a problem in the western world until mid 20th cenury, when we succeeded in eliminate it. If you deny this you really are a weak scinteist (btw you don’t know who I am).
The professor and world leading expert in this area, Paul Reiter explains:
“Rural populations declined as manual labor was replaced by machinery, further reducing the availability of humans as hosts for both mosquitoes and parasites. New building materials and improved methods of construction made houses more mosquito-proof, especially in winter, thus reducing the risk for contact with mosquitoes. Greater access to medical care and a rapid drop in the cost of quinine reduced the survival rate of the malaria parasite in its human host.
A similar decline occurred in the more prosperous countries of Europe–Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, and northern Italy. However, malaria maintained a much firmer grip on Eastern Europe–Finland, Poland and Russia, and the countries bordering the Black Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. It was not until the advent of DDT, after World War II, that a concerted attempt could be made to eradicate the disease from the entire continent[30].”
Thus, we have had a reduction in malaria during the warming of the climate in the 20th century, and we chosed to stop ot eliminate it when we completely banned DDT. This is a fact now embraced by all important health organizations.
Magnus said,
kgjg: “If mosquitos manage to become the size of hummingbirds then I will put on my panic cap.”
You’re welcome to northern Scandinavia.
Mike said,
Great, thanks!
I read this while high now I’m all paranoid about these crazy things!
Dan said,
They left my wife off the list!!
Bob said,
Global Warming is indeed true and my right nut proves it. Gives a little tingle everytime the earth’s surface goes up a tenth of a degree and it’s been going constantly! Even affecting the right one now. Global Warming feels good! Yee Haw!!
Bob Bligerbossom, Flicklespit, Mississip
Lisa said,
Well, I certainly like the way Mike Fox is thinkin’! . If we had some workable form of population control going on, that would correct many of our environmental problems. Unfortunate that most Humans are too selfish to consider voluntary control.
As for mosquitos not being active below 45 degrees F….no one told the skeeters here in the Sierra about that law! They may be easier to catch at low temps. but I still get more bites in winter than summertime. Hell, my favorite winter sport is catching mosquitos on my porch and feeding them to spiders…alot more fun than standing in lift lines!!
Lastly, it is amazing how many folks think that Global Warming automatically means warmer air temperature. The way I understand it, the slight gradual rises in ocean temperatures are driving more violent and unpredictable weather patterns, many of which are bringing unseasonable COLD to different parts of the planet. Warm or Cold….it would take a very blind fool to deny that WE are screwing up our beautiful planet in many,many ways and the time to wake up is NOW even if it is about 50 years overdue!!!
INDI SCANLON said,
OMG this website has helped sooo much with my dagerous and deadly assignment at school!
The deadly irukandji,brain eating killer amoeba and the vibro vulnificus are so interesting .
I luv it
thanks again, Indi
tania said,
This mess is all to overwhelming and scary!!!!