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Global Warming And One Of Its Many Ramifications
Anthrax outbreak caused by melting permafrost.
A cause for concern.
Russia is fighting a mysterious anthrax outbreak in a remote corner of Siberia. Dozens of people have been hospitalized; one child has died. The government has airlifted some families out as several thousand reindeer have been infected.
Officials don’t know exactly how the outbreak started, but the current hypothesis is almost unbelievable and if scientifically proven could be a wake-up call for humanity. A heatwave has thawed frozen soil in Siberia and with it, reindeer carcasses that became infected with anthrax decades or possibly hundred’s of years ago.
Some scientists think this incident could be an example of what climate change may increasingly be uncovered in the frozen tundra. The place where the outbreak is occurring is called the Yamal Peninsula. It lies high above the Arctic Circle at the top of the world. It’s so cold there, that the soil is called permafrost and is frozen solid, more than 1,000 feet deep in many places. This depth is the height of the Empire State Building as a comparison.
“The soil in the Yamal Pennisula is like a giant freezer,” says Jean-Michel Claverie at the National Center for Scientific Research in France. “These are very, very good conditions for bacteria…
