Ancient Viruses Trapped in Glaciers for Thousands of Years Could

Be Released By Climate Crisis:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2...usands-years-could-be-released-climate-crisis

So there you are thinking well, things could be worse. The glaciers have melted and the world is under two hundred feet of water, but I live on a hill and my allotment is even further up so how bad is that? Your sheds are full roots and fruit and you are thinking of sailing up to Huddersfield to pick up a steam engine to power your computer and life is pretty good until....

you come down with some sort of neanderthal pox!

That is the problem with environmentalists. They don't care about the planet, they are just worried that you might be having fun.

 

I don't know.....I think I'm more worried about the modern resistant ones, those are really evolved to kill us....

 

It's just mother nature getting rid of her infection. It's happened in the past, it'll happen again

 

You make a good point.

When humans create defenses against bacteria/viruses - these organisms start devising ways around those defenses.

We started out with penicillin. Soon this was not strong enough so we altered the molecule to create stronger variations. Now these are not strong enough due to the evolution of "superbugs".

I read a book recently called "the germ code" - the title being a play on "the Davinci code". The book was basically saying that anti-biotic's will soon be obsolete and we need to come up with other ways to defeat these organisms.

 

Great! Neanderthal Pox! After the next ice age, the diseases we leave trapped in the ice will make cave man pox look great!

 

at some point they'll just inject everyone with nanobots that destroy everything bad...then of course we have to worry about grey goo consuming the entire galaxy but then again, healthcare was never about the long term

 

If it weren't for that stupid ice we would have been exposed to it by now and built up immunities to it.

 

Ahhh... evolution in action. It's a beautiful thing, actually. We are able to witness first hand how things can evolve over millions and millions of years, by simply watching simple organisms do it within a human lifetime.

 

Yeah, not a good idea to thaw out a really old living thing:

 

Let's hope the Chinese don't develop a taste for petrified mammoth meat

 

Indeed - the evolution is super fast. Replicating every 4 hours speeds things up - and the bacteria have these things called plasmids - little packets of nucleic acids that will confer a certain ability. Bacteria are cannibals so when the consume the other bacteria they ingest these plasmids and gain a new ability -- just like in a role play game.

 

I think they were far more worried when they dug up soldiers who died from the 1918-19 flu and were buried in tundra. But that turned out OK.

 

Of all the things to worry about surly I can find something more dire than Neanderthal pox.

 

DON'T PANIC!!! Greta Thunberg will save us all......mind you..... someone ought to tell her that she's a major contributor to climate change with all the hot air she puts out....

 

The fact the human species still exists in such a great abundance is evidence these ancient diseases are not the doomsday scenarios they are believed to be. Even the modern diseases for which there are no cures cannot seem to eradicate the invasive species that is the human race.

 

i envision warren & bernie spewing...
"we need to manufacture freezers to refreeze the glaciers, to protect us all from cavie-pox", " and we'll make the rich pay for it!", "now run along and vote for me & not that krazie touchie-feelie guy"

 

My personal concern as I live in new Mexico is that there was a recent case in Arizona, close to the border.
As a virus has no built in compass it could easily cross the southern border and infect those waiting in Mexico for their court dates.
They are in camps like this.

If the virus gets hold it will spread like wildfire, and the residents will be swarming over the border demanding we give them medical care. These demands will be backed by the Democrats and ACLU.
This will not end well.

 

Under such circumstances the only appropriate course of action may be to deploy lethal force against anyone and everyone attempting to cross the border.

 

And the worlds press would have a field day as the first illegals crossing would be holding children in front of them.

 

Imagine what such coverage would do to discourage future illegal immigration into the united states. No longer would the united states be regarded as a country that will welcome and accept everyone under any circumstances. No longer would it be regarded as the promised land that offers everything to everyone.

If such is still insufficient to discourage illegal aliens from entering in an illegal fashion, the bodies of the dead can be propped up like scarecrows along the border to act as a visual reminder of what fate befell those that attempted previously.

 

So a germ that protects itself by developing resistance turned into a dog?

I know germs and insects develop resistance to antibiotics and pesticides in order to survive. We can see it happen. What I cannot see is a germ turning into a dog to survive .lol

We must have had some great genetic engineers millions of years ago to turn germs into cambrian life forms in that huge explosion followed later by huge dinosaurs ! If not genius engineers that leaves the supernatural .

You know these germs are smart as hell. They know antibiotics are killing them and then mutate until they overcome the poison! They must have some form of consciousness and intelligence instead of relying on blind chance. But many people prefer blind chance that is much more inefficient.

 

Huh? You think evolution means that a human can turn into a snake overnight? Who taught you the basics of evolution? (Nobody, apparently.)

 

And the world press' home countries would be offering to take them, so what's your point? The US would get over it...

 

Actually bacteria mostly just leave plasmids lying around for other bacteria to schlep up as they pass.

Most common bacteria don't really ingest others as much as they outcompete each other for high energy molecules. There are exceptions of course.

Designer plasmids originally from bacteria were actually the vector used to inject new genes into organisims to create the transgenic bioteck industry we know and live today.

 

Lol, random mutation is exactly what powers evolution though adaptations that are successful and introduce selective advantage can be passed on in aggregate gene systems that appear to be too complex to be random. Examples would be eyes evolved from light sensative eyespots and highly mutatable variable immune complexes.