Our Warming Planet Is a Petri Dish for New and Deadly Microbes

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/06/01/our-warming-planet-is-a-petri-dish-for-new-and-deadly-microbes

Comments

guywithahatMay 26, 2026, 2:56 AM
For context, the planet has warmed ~2*F since ~1850. While global warming is surly a thing I certainly wouldn't rank it on a top 10 list of reasons diseases and microbes are created.
sixtyjMay 26, 2026, 12:29 PM
If you want to get rid of salmonella, you have to achieve 158F inside meat. Not 156F.

So every degree counts. Earth is so complex that we don’t know what else is hidden in permafrost, next to anthrax.

conceptionMay 26, 2026, 5:36 AM
2F globally does not mean a uniform distribution of warming. Land warming closer to 4F. But Reno is up over 7 degrees. Alaska over 4f. It’s not great!
littlexsparkeeMay 26, 2026, 3:54 AM
The primary threat is expansion of existing diseases. I wouldn't discount the temperature change so readily, one of the mechanisms was increased precipitation (as they noted in the case of Valley Fever, driven by the 'grow and blow' effect of wet and dry whiplash).
jfengelMay 26, 2026, 3:21 AM
It's just another thing tossed on the pile. It's not the worst thing, but it doesn't have to be for it to be interesting and relevant.
OutOfHereMay 26, 2026, 3:57 AM
Huh. The rise has been closer to +3F since 2023, not 2F, and it's getting worse on average.
guywithahatMay 26, 2026, 6:41 AM
There's a difference between weather and climate. Weather is something that happens and has great variability, climate is an expected weather pattern. Measuring the average temperature change from 2023->2024 or similar would be weather, looking at the temperature over ~100+ years would be more akin to climate. There are plenty of years where it's colder than the previous year, and many where it's markably warmer. Famously the continental US experienced no warming, possibly some cooling from 2000 to 2012, not because we solved global warming but because of random variations in the data.

But broadly speaking, yoy change isn't representative of climate, and any time a politician tells you this is the last election to stop climate change you can ignore him. Even fast pace warming takes decades

OutOfHereMay 26, 2026, 1:10 PM
It's a global average. It's a set of valid data points. It's not nothing. The rise has been steady; it's not a surprise. This is not the continental US we're speaking of; it's the world. Your denialism is obvious.
sieabahlparkMay 26, 2026, 3:23 AM
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