Totally Swamped

“It is surprising that mosquitoes have received so little attention in the Everglades restoration effort, 

considering their abundance and important natural role in the Everglades ecosystem.” 

An understatement from Yale Professor Emeritus, Durland Fish

What is fascinating, in a very bad way, is our consistent failure to link the spread of disease to climate change. The factors certainly include: temperature, humidity, levels of exposure to the sun’s rays, changes in wind and precipitation patterns, increases in severe storms and wildfires, loss of habitat and plant life, migration of people and animals (particularly regarding insects and parasites) and nature’s adaptations to living creatures and plants creating altered forms of life. Bacteria, parasites and viruses are impacted both directly by changes in these variables as well as the migration patterns of the plants and animal life that carry them. 

Although we have seen the human migration results of extended drought/desertification in the Sunni agricultural regions of Iraq and Syria – civil insurrection against antagonistic Shiite governments, the rise of ISIS and other Sunni extremists to “protect” Sunni farmers, and mass migration of displaced farm families into Lebanon, Turkey and the European Union – generally non-agrarian societies with major cities and infrastructure tend to stay in place. As animals (particularly sea life, birds and insects) move across international boundaries without restriction, they and the bacteria, parasites and viruses they carry are then introduced into a “new” stationary human population that has little or no natural resistance to these infectious threats. Is there a complimentary expansion and acceleration of nature’s evolutionary adaptation in times of dramatic climate change?

The United States has transitioned from a “can do” society that prepares for the future, embraces staying on top of cutting-edge science and technology with massive building and designing for “what’s next” into a nation that cuts taxes for the rich as it defers infrastructure maintenance, kicks cans down the road, makes higher education less affordable, and elects those to the highest offices in the land who deny science and politicize medical realities. We have gone from proactive to reactive, reflecting climate change-damage spending only out of desperate necessity rather than prudent preparation… a very, very expensive practice measured in lives lost, health and hard dollars. We love to echo how the United States is the greatest, the best and destined to stay that way even as we really primarily on the investments of prior generations and watch too many sectors of global competition accelerate… without believing sufficiently in ourselves to invest in our own future.

For those who see disease carrying animals, particularly insects, as “happening over there but not here,” there are some harsh lessons to be learned. One region of our nation, particularly exposed to the ravages of climate change but far enough out of sight that it seldom generates any serious overall attention, are the Florida Everglades (a wetlands preserve). That isolated area faces serious reconfiguration from climate change, but there are also less than subtle changes in disease potential that few of us are aware of. Mosquitos, which have always been an essential part of that hot, swampy part of our country, have also been the harbingers of major diseases, famously yellow fever and malaria, which are still with us. But what is happening in the Everglades, what the mosquito population has picked up – beginning the spread of new diseases – should frighten us all. It is a story that will repeat itself all over the planet, certainly including significant portions of the entire United States, as climate patterns change where infectious agents may migrate and evolve. It’s certainly not just mosquitos! But they are far more dangerous than alligators!

Writing for the November 22nd Yale News, Michael Greenwood explains the results of a new study of mosquito-borne diseases in the Everglades conducted by a research team from the Yale University School of Public health: “There are more than 500 known mosquito-borne viruses and at least 100 can cause disease in humans. Most originate from wildlife that infect mosquitoes which then transmit the virus to humans through their bites. Mosquitoes and their viruses are part of natural ecosystems, and as more development encroaches on natural lands, more people will be exposed to these viruses, said [lead author and Yale emeritus professor, Durland Fish].

“More than 7 billion mosquitoes are estimated to exist in the Everglades. In the study, researchers identified particular landscape features where virus-infected mosquitoes are most likely to be found, including cypress swamp, hardwood forest, pineland, and mangrove. They also identified the few mosquito species that carry viruses among the 30 species found in the study. This information will be important in directing future research efforts to understand how these viruses are maintained in one of the largest wetland ecosystems in the United States, Fish said…

“[A team of Yale School of Public Health research scientists] has detected the presence of little-known mosquito-borne viruses endemic to the Florida Everglades… raising concern about future public health threats… In four large nature areas encompassing over one million acres in the Everglades, the team conducted a two-year study of mosquitoes and the viruses they carry. The study revealed that several rare viruses are prevalent within the mosquito populations and were found in a third of 105 study sites.

“The viruses — including Everglades virus, Mahogany Hammock virus, Shark River virus, and Gumbo Limbo virus, among others — were first discovered more than 50 years ago in the Florida preserve but have received little attention since.

“The public health significance of these viruses is largely unknown, but impending environmental changes in the Everglades could result in an increased abundance of virus-infected mosquitoes and, potentially, increased exposure to humans, researchers say. The study found that the viruses were most prevalent in years when the water level was high, indicating that wetland restoration efforts and sea-level rise could result in more infected mosquitoes in the future.” 

As the area of the United States north of the Everglades begins to resemble the heat and humidity patterns of that wetland preserve, already begun, those mosquitos and the diseases they carry will migrate into the rest of Florida and points north, accelerated by human travel, as we have seen. Nature will add her adaptation to these insects and their carried viruses, making their infection power increasingly virulent to humans. We’ve already faced zoonotic (animal to man) transmission of more than one coronavirus, but there are so many additional ways to transmit new and very nasty viruses, bacteria and parasites to humanity. For those who believe that global warming is just about heat, storms and fires, think again. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and I simply wonder why making rich Americans richer – as measured by the highest level of income inequality in our nation’s history – is so much more important to us than dealing with reversing that most existential threat to life itself: climate change.