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By: Jessica Sabatini Summary: According to Stanford, researchers predict that rising temperatures and increased urbanization will increase rates of diseases caused and spread by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals killing over 1,000,000 people per year. The two most common mosquitoes that transmit diseases are Aedes aegypti and Aedes alcopictus. These creatures can carry many different diseases to spread, malaria being the most widespread at this time. However, researchers believe that as greenhouse gases create warmer temperatures, mosquitoes will thrive and spread to places unseen. Mosquitoes are attracted to warm, wet, and humid places; and when humans live in places like these, they tend to keep their windows open. This increases their risk for bites and possibly infections. It is said that as atmospheric CO2 rise with the temperatures, mosquito evolution will rapidly increase. According to Dr. Chufei Tang, the evolution of mosquitoes may cause eradicated diseases to come back and spread even further. We have seen the increasing temperatures affect other insects that carry disease; Lyme disease, carried by ticks, had an increased spread as temperatures increased. These researchers also mention that malaria will not be the disease we need to worry about, in fact, malaria rates are said to possibly decrease in some areas! Dengue fever seems to be a recurring concern in all of these articles. More than 3 billion people are at risk for dengue (based on location). Dengue fever has very similar symptoms to those of the Zika virus; this includes fever, rash, severe muscle aches, eye pain, and nausea. Right now, there are only about 100 to 200 cases of dengue fever in the United States, and it usually only affects those who traveled internationally. This number is said to possibly increase within this century, as temperature and CO2 levels increase. Why we should care? Malaria thrives at around 78°F and dengue thrives at around 84°F. Most US states get to those temperatures in the spring and summertime. We can all be affected by this disease eventually.  Photo Credit: https://insideclimatenews.org/species/insects/asian-tiger-mosquito Example Article. https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2019-03-29/study-finds-climate-change-could-put-billions-at-risk-of-mosquito-borne-diseases I like that the U.S. News article covers each point of this topic. I did a lot of research with many different articles and research papers and this article summarizes these pretty well. I like how the author pointed out that mosquitoes are the deadliest animals, how they used stats to support this, and how they explained the risk as temperatures increase. Also, they showed something that I didn't point out in my summary, that if temperatures get too high then the mosquitoes will ultimately suffer. Not to mention, this article also gives hyperlinks to background information on this topic, so if you are more interested you can research this even further than it has been summarized. Science in Action.
Dr. Chufei Tang is at China Agricultural University. Dr. Chufei Tang was mentioned in one of the articles I read on this subject. As I found his research profile, I had access to all of his publications. Dr. Chufei Tang has about 53 publications and a lot of them cover mosquitoes in some way. He does have a particular study or two that directly relates mosquitoes to climate change. This article is titled, "Elevated atmospheric CO2 promoted speciation in mosquitoes". This means that this article specifically covers climate change n relation to mosquito evolution and mutations. I covered a little bit about this in my summary, but he mentions that it is possible that as CO2 levels increase, mosquito evolution will thrive, and this could bring back some eradicated diseases.
5 Comments
Jenna Steele
12/10/2020 00:25:34
Hi Jessica! This post was incredibly interesting to read. I had no clue that the mosquito is the most deadly animals! Would have though it to be something larger than something that you could squish. But this is also a terrifying fact, given that you normally don't recognize that you were bit until you have that awful itching sensation. This coupled with the fact that CO2 levels and temperatures are rising, kind of makes anywhere more likely to be susceptible to mosquitoes because they like the warmer temperature.
Grace Young
12/11/2020 23:42:59
I never knew that mosquitoes were the deadliest animal and just how many people die because of them. I already knew that climate change was a big issue but reading that eradicated diseases may come back as a result makes me wonder why no one is taking it seriously.
Carlos Rodriguez
12/15/2020 18:50:10
I had no idea mosquitos are considered the most deadliest animal. I was aware that mosquitos could carry such diseases but I never thought it would be a problem we would have to worry about so much today. Of course, with rising temperatures there are so many things shifting/changing that we weren't prepared on how to combat them at all, and this is just the beginning! It's scary to think of all the new threats that have risen in recent years. I think if people didn't get the hint before, this should definitely be a wake up call now for everyone to finally do something about climate change.
Meghan Richardson
9/20/2021 15:49:33
Since I have lived near water my whole life I am used to seeing mosquitoes and being bit by them. My friends are all very nervous about going outside at night because of potential mosquito bites, but I never took their concerns seriously until now. Both malaria and dengue fever are contractible diseases I never wish to experience. They both are treatable presently, but as the temperature increases the more deadly those diseases can become. It seems very hard to stop mosquitoes from biting you. Especially since I never know when I am being bitten. This starts to make me think about ways to counteract mosquitoes. I know that there are scientists presently trying to find ways to eradicate mosquitoes for good. One way is by breeding infertile mosquitoes. That way they would slowly die off. However, I don't think eradication is the way to go since mosquitoes are a key food group for other animals like bats, frogs, and fish. Killing off mosquitoes will decrease the amount of food that these animals can consume which can lower there overall population. The best way to slow the mosquitoes progression would be to start taking steps toward counteracting climate change. If that cannot be done, I will be moving somewhere dry and cold.
Tara Flaherty
9/21/2021 10:25:22
This was super interesting to read! I learned a lot from this blog post, much like everyone else is saying I never knew mosquitos were the deadliest animal! You would think that sharks or polar bears would be, something big and scary not something so small and common. After reading this I'm surprised more people don't care about this topic. There should definitely be more funding put into research for this issue. Leave a Reply. |
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