The discovery of dinosaur fossils is not unusual for earthlings, but if the ecological environment is affected by climate change, people find the remains of prehistoric creatures in glaciers and permafrost, will it not be surprising and worrying.
Fossils of prehistoric organisms
How were the remains of these prehistoric creatures buried under the ice of the Arctic, discovered by humans? In fact, it is because the Arctic has a "fever".
Why does the Arctic "high fever" continue? What do the remains of prehistoric creatures that have been gradually revealed because of the "high fever" in the Arctic illustrate? What kind of impact will the ancient germs buried under the ice have on human beings if they awaken? What other natural disasters have humanity suffered because of climate change?
Arctic glaciers
Arctic temperatures are faster, glaciers are melting faster, prehistoric animal remains are slowly emerging as the snow and ice melt, and germs from deeper places may also awaken.
The Arctic "has a fever"
When it comes to the Arctic, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as snowy, icy and snowy, and if conditions permit, flying to the Arctic in the hot summer to escape the heat is really a pleasure. Today, however, temperatures in the Arctic are rising at alarming levels. Verkhoyonsk, formerly known as the coldest town in the Northern Hemisphere, but in June 2020, the town within the Siberian Arctic Circle detected an all-time high of temperatures – 38 °C – which undoubtedly sounded a wake-up call for humanity.
The permafrost of Siberia is melting
The Arctic region has become hot, and the occurrence of such unusual extreme weather has attracted the attention of the World Meteorological Organization, which official speakers believe is due to the background of global warming. The Arctic heats up, first of all, the sea ice has decreased significantly, the snow has melted, and some of the glacier mountains that were originally covered with ice and snow are now exposed to deep black rocks.
The glacier melts to reveal rock formations
The survival of the inhabitants of the Arctic is also in question, they can no longer fish and hunt in their original places, and are forced to go to higher and more dangerous places in search of food. The decline in animal resources has forced local residents to leave. In addition to the humans who were forced to leave, there are also desperate polar bears.
The anomaly of the Arctic climate has reduced the ice floes of the Arctic Ocean, and polar bears can no longer get delicious marine fish from under those ice floes, and hungry polar bears have begun to migrate, leaving the original foraging area. In 2019, in the city of Norilsk in northern Siberia, Russia, people saw a dirty polar bear rummaging through household garbage, it looked skinny, its eyes were unfocused, and it should have been hungry for a long time.
Hungry polar bears enter human settlements
In August 2020, a polar bear hunting reindeer was spotted in Svalbard, Norway. Polar bears obviously feed on fish and seals in the ocean, so why do they hunt reindeer on land? The reason is that the ecological environment of the Arctic has been damaged, the number of fish has plummeted, and polar bears, who cannot find a source of food, have no choice but to run to land and hunt weak reindeer.
Polar bears hunt reindeer in the water
WHO warns humans that Arctic temperatures have risen more than twice as much as the global average, with polar bears first and foremost, and their living space has shrunk dramatically, and if left unchecked, polar bears could become extinct.
As temperatures rise in the Arctic, polar glaciers melt and the permafrost in the polar regions begins to melt, and the remains of some prehistoric creatures, along with well-preserved fur, gradually emerge.
Prehistoric organisms found in the permafrost
Prehistoric creatures appear frequently
These ancient creatures, which are stored in glacial permafrost, tens of millions of years old, are much more complete than the fossils of paleontology formed under geological deposits on land, and most of them maintain a perfect posture, with contours, furs and internal organs, and have not been seriously damaged. Most of these paleontology are mammals, birds, insects, and these paleontologists lived during the Ice Age 57,000 years ago. The Arctic during the Ice Age was home to ancient behemoths such as mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and earth sloths.
Animal mammoths of the Ice Age
Archaeologists once found a well-preserved long-haired rhinoceros in the permafrost of the Siberian region. An Ice Age paleontology that first appeared in the Pleistocene (more than 2 million years ago), the long-haired rhinoceros is a herbivore covered in thick fur, and it is still related to the modern Sumatran rhinoceros.
The long-haired rhinoceros uses its long, curved rhino horns to whip through thick snow in search of turf and plant roots to eat, and it was very active in northern Eurasia until the Paleolithic Age, when humans survived, and people liked to hunt the long-haired rhinoceros for its flesh and fur. One might ask if the hunting of long-haired rhinos by humans once caused the extinction of the species.
Prehistoric long-haired rhinoceros
In fact, the long-haired rhinoceros became extinct because of the end of the Ice Age. Studies of the carcass of the long-haired rhinoceros found in Siberia revealed that it was drowned, reminiscent of a precursor to the collapse of the Ice Age: rising temperatures, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and sinking animals to the ocean floor.
In addition to the discovery of the remains of the long-haired rhinoceros, mammoths hidden in the permafrost have gradually emerged. Some profit-seeking merchants coveted the mammoth's two huge tusks, and the search for mammoth tusks caused greater damage to the Arctic ecology. In fact, in addition to the destruction of the ecology, no one knows whether this priceless mammoth ivory will carry some ancient germs, and if these sleeping germs are awakened, will they bring unpredictable results?
Scientists have found ancient creatures in the thawed permafrost
Sleeping germs may awaken
Imagine that the meat placed in the refrigerator can be kept fresh, just like the remains of ancient creatures sealed in the frozen soil, if taken outdoors, the meat will stink because of the bacterial decay in contact with the air, and the ancient biological remains in the frozen soil layer are now seen again, and the contact with the outside air and light will presumably stimulate the production of some sleeping substances.
Prehistoric animal remains exposed to the air
The first is that the corpse will emit a large smell of animal carcasses, oozing out bodily fluids, and the intuitive feeling is an unpleasant smell. Second, these ancient creatures may have suffered from diseases before they were born, may have wound infections, may carry some ancient bacterial viruses, and these germs may also awaken as the remains are exhumed.
In 2016, there was an outbreak of Bacillus anthracis that killed more than 2,000 moose in the Yamal region of the Arctic, the source of which was a corpse that had died of Bacillus anthracis years earlier. The reindeer was frozen in ice for 75 years, which means that Bacillus anthracis successfully survived in the glacier for 75 years.
Originally frozen in reindeer carcasses
Bacillus anthracis itself is an ancient virus, and if the Arctic permafrost continues to thaw in the future, releasing more unknown organisms and possible germs from ancient times, when they carry out the human ecological environment, it may bring immeasurable impact.
Human industrialization has been rapid in recent decades, with large amounts of greenhouse gases being emitted from the exhaust of automobiles and produced from the burning of fossil fuels. Global warming is a problem that plagues all mankind, and if climate problems are not properly solved, they will in turn affect human beings and bring about many natural disasters, such as drought.
Vehicle exhaust emissions
Climate issues should not be underestimated
Drought has a very strong impact on crop yields. For the mainland, the mainland's north and east China, as well as the Yunnan-Guichuan River, often experience droughts in summer and autumn. The impact of drought on mainland agriculture has shown a trend of increasing area and more serious losses. Since the 1950s, mainland agriculture has lost up to 2.5-3 million kilograms of food due to drought.
Drought to cracked earth
Frost damage is also a typical natural disaster, frost damage manifests itself in many forms, including frost, cold waves, cold air, accompanied by strong winds, rain and snow weather. The central and northwestern regions of the mainland have been severely affected by frost damage. Frostbite can cause delayed crop growth, frostbite and affect crop harvests.
Extreme weather has led to an increase in pests and diseases. Because of climate change, the impact of pests and diseases changes in latitude. Travel from low latitudes to high latitudes, from high altitudes to low altitudes. Climate change will also cause diseased insects to develop and grow faster, taking less time to complete one generation in a year. Climate change makes pests and diseases more and more difficult to deal with, and experts believe that ecological protection can make beneficial insects help humans resist pests and diseases, so ecological protection is everyone's responsibility.
Pests that nibble on leaves
The melting of Arctic glaciers and permafrost has brought new problems, the ecology of the Arctic is becoming more fragile, and the potential hidden dangers of germs also need attention. Natural disasters are not a small joke made by the earth to mankind, in the face of natural disasters, human beings seem so small, we must have a sense of ecological crisis, we need to mobilize more people to protect the earth's ecology, green life.