Permafrost collapse on the Glenn Highway in southeastern Alaska near Slana.
Covid-19, climate change, and permafrost collapse…
…and our new, abruptly evolving culture.
By Bruce Melton
First Published on The Rag Blog on July 7, 2020
ADDITION, JUNE 11, 2021 — Laboratory Origin — In the original article the citation for the academic review citing the virus was “definitively” not of laboratory origin was not included. This work, Anderson 2020, was led by the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA. the authors summaries their review in the following,
“Theories of SARS-CoV-2 origins: It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of a related SARS-CoV-like coronavirus. As noted above, the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 is optimized for binding to human ACE2 with an efficient solution different from those previously predicted (7,11). Furthermore, if genetic manipulation had been performed, one of the several reverse-genetic systems available for betacoronaviruses would probably have been used (19). However, the genetic data irrefutably show that SARSCoV-2 is not derived from any previously used virus backbone (20). Instead, we propose two scenarios that can plausibly explain the origin of SARS-CoV-2: (i) natural selection in an animal host before zoonotic transfer; and (ii) natural selection in humans following zoonotic transfer. We also discuss whether selection during passage could have given rise to SARS-CoV-2.”
Anderson et al., The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2, Nature Medicine, March 17, 2020.pdf
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9
AUSTIN — The origin of Covid-19 is still in dispute in academia. The classic connection is from contemporary bats via pangolins or civets, allowed or enhanced by habitat loss and warming that creates animal stress leading to increased animal disease, and the habitat loss crowding animals ever closer to our burgeoning human population. Or maybe it was just bad luck with some populations that eat different animals than other populations.
Meanwhile, permafrost collapse from climate change is 70 years ahead of schedule and plausibly emitting, not sequestering, as many greenhouse gases as are emitted every year by all of transportation across the globe. New research is showing reanimation of viruses preserved in permafrost is real and though no research has yet fingered permafrost collapse as the culprit, scientists have been warning us about things like this for 30 years.