Vennskap News: There May Be Trouble Ahead

He’s back! Our friend Niño is coming to visit us once again this winter. Niño is the Spanish word for 'boy or child', and in this case, a mischievous youngster. El Niño is a pool of warm ocean water that's driven from a change of winds, normally blowing from east to west, but now blowing from the west to the east.

As snowcover disappears in the Arctic North , the Arctic permafrost emerges from historic slumber yielding relics of past inhabitants and debris that has laid hidden for decades, even millennia. We have very limited knowledge of our deep waters and even less experience of knowing what is in our northern permafrost areas. While this warmer winter weather may be welcome, it also causes problems."The warm water is driven across the Pacific Ocean", according to Environment Canada Senior Climatologist Dave Phillips, "and triggers changes to the circulation of the atmosphere that can have repercussions thousands of miles away.”

“It's got an impact all over the world, including Antarctica” states Ted Scambos, a senior scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. The end result is the melting of Arctic ice and glaciers around the world have shrunk markedly in recent decades.

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This brings a combination of good news and bad news..

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"The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet" says James Astill. The retreating ice offers access to precious land area as frozen tundra retreats northwards, and large areas of the Arctic will become suitable for agriculture. An increasingly early Arctic spring could increase plant growth by up to 25%. That would

allow Greenlanders to grow more than the paltry 100 tons of potatoes they manage to harvest now, and much more valuable materials will become increasingly accessible. The Arctic is already a big source of minerals including zinc in Alaska, gold in Canada, iron in Sweden and nickel in Russia, and plenty more to mine, but the costs will also be huge. Unique ecosystems, and perhaps many species, will be lost in a tide of environmental change. The cause is likely global pollution, and the risks it carries are likewise global.

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Our prehistoric theories and facts note extreme earthquakes and earthly turmoil. This combined with a giant

asteroid that struck earth at the Yucatan Peninsula in Southeastern Mexico wiped out the existing dinosaurs and created extreme changes. This ‘new earth’ might have introduced some new elements now buried deeply in permafrost for decades.

“If you start mining for something, you will excavate layers of frozen soil by millions of tons,” says Jean-Michel Claverie, head of France’s Structural and Genomic Information Laboratory .“If there is something nasty there, it will be released in the atmosphere and affect the people who are working there. If we are not careful, and we industrialize these areas without putting safeguards in place, we run the risk of one day waking up viruses such as smallpox that we thought were eradicated.”

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A team of French scientists is closely studying viruses uncovered in Siberia to ensure they won't wipe out humanity in a few decades. Their problem is that one can't study frozen samples to see what will happen - the samples must be thawed and activated, and in microscopic studies of sample specimen, researchers have isolated suspected viruses.

To identify a virus, the laboratory has to use a sample of an amoeba such as plankton. If the amoeba dies in contact with this sample, scientists can conclude that they were exposed to a virus. Amoeba, if you remember your high school science classwork, is a single cell animal which can divide and quickly multiply.

An amoebe

Infected, this could prove devastating. Researchers then proceed to test it on mice and human cells to see if it is, or is not hazardous. Claverie and his team previously had discovered an ancient virus, and these discoveries raise the possibility that, as the climate warms and exploration expands in long-untouched regions of Siberia, humans could release ancient or eradicated viruses.So,while warmer winter weather may be welcome, it also causes problems.The warm flow is driven across the Pacific Ocean and triggers changes to the circulation of the atmosphere that can have repercussions thousands of miles away.”

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There have been four types of prehistoric viruses found since 2003, however all have been proven to be

harmless.Common vaccines have controlled the influenza and chicken pox viruses, measles and mumps and many other well-known diseases. Careful attention finally controlled the polio and, currently, carefully monitoring the ebola viruses.

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An Arctic deep-mine.

“In the event of mining operations, millions of tons of these layers will be dug up and exposed to air. All the conditions will be in place for the reactivation of those viruses, some of which could be pathogens.” said Claverie. These ancient viruses found frozen in Siberian ice are proof that a variety of virus types can survive long periods of time at extremely cold temperatures.One recent research study by a team of French scientists found a virus named the “Mollivirus Sibericum” that qualified as

a "giant virus." This virus was discovered in 2015 in a 30,000-year-old sample of Siberian permafrost. French scientists plan to reanimate it in order to explore how it developed. It was unearthed from one hundred feet of Siberian permafrost. Molllivirus Sibericum which means “soft virus from Siberia” is in the process of being analyzed. As Arctic environments warm up, ancient viruses that lay dormant for thousands of years might thaw and reinfect humans once again.

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There are skeptics claiming climate change is just routine weather variations.

Currently, the Middle Eastern countries, accustomed to high summer temperatures are suffering an extreme heat wave as thermometers reaches 164 degrees in Iran, and 159 degrees in Iraq. Prolonged days of broiling heat would not be conducive to human outdoor activity. While some world areas are experiencing an elevated heat index, other areas are finding the warming conditions melting ice and food sources are no longer available. Animals migrate for suitable hunting areas and humans are known to do likewise. If 'climate change' continues to be factual and, in some part caused by humans,

we will be forced to take action.