Pirate's Cove

This can be avoided if you just start taking the bus and give your money and freedom to government

An Apocalypse of Toxic Fungi Could Threaten Millions of Lives Within 15 Years

When writing about climate, lots of ink—or pixels, in a 21st-century context—is spent talking about the potential devastating impacts that climate change will have on plant and animal life. However, little is mentioned about the kingdom Fungi. Hundreds of thousands of species of fungi have been described, but that’s likely only 10 percent of the total number of fungal species that exist on Earth. These species include everyone’s delicious favorites, but also some more dangerous species that can cause toxic infections in animals and agricultural crops.

So, in a new study from the University of Manchester, scientists asked the question of what rising global temperatures could mean for the proliferation of some of these meaner mycelia. In a paper published on the preprint platform ResearchSquare, Norman van Rhijn, the lead author of the study, and his team describe what our fungal future has in store.

“Changes in environmental factors, such as humidity and extreme weather events, will change habitats and drive fungal adaptation and spread,” van Rhign said in a press statement. “We’ve already seen the emergence of the fungus Candida auris due to rising temperatures, but, until now, we had little information of how other fungi might respond to this change in the environment.”

The researchers analyzed the effects of rising temperatures on infection-causing fungi using different climate scenarios up to the year 2100. The study showed that within 15 years, if the world still relies on mostly fossil fuels instead of clean energy, fungi like Aspergillus flavus—a cause of agricultural rot that also produces mycotoxins that are harmful to mammals—will spread by 16 percent, which would put an additional 1 million people at risk of infection in Europe alone. This is largely because A. flavus is more thermotolerant than other fungi, meaning that it can thrive in hot, humid climates where other fungi simply could not.

So, some cultists decided to find another way to keep the money train going via some new Doom, and put it through their computer models. And probably never left the office. Too bad the people at Popular Mechanics didn’t ask all those involved with the study if they had given up their own use of fossil fuels. It’s all just speculation. Besides, I thought all the land would be underwater in 15 years.

While the spread of these toxic fungi—whose infections are hard to avoid, as they mostly travel in the air we breathe— the inverse may also be a cause for concern. Some life-sustaining fungi, responsible for breaking down plant and animal matter, may not be able to survive in some of the hottest parts of the world (especially on the African continent). It’s basically a one-two punch of bad news.

It’s all fear porn, based on a miniscule 1.6F increase in global temps since 1850.