To release viruses trapped in ice in Siberia warn scientists, as they have known for years that Methuselah microbes (cells that remain dormant in permafrost) can multiply and spread if they break out of the ice.

According to a report by the Daily Mail, scientists have begun to warn of the danger of a new deadly disease pandemic which will start on the occasion of global warming.

2023 was the warmest year on record, so more and more permafrost covering a quarter of the northern hemisphere is melting.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) reports that the average temperature of the Arctic has already increased at a rate three times higher than the global average and is the region with the highest rate of change in average temperature.

Jean-Michel Claverie, a geneticist at Aix-Marseille University in southern France, told the Observer: “The critical point for permafrost (permafrost) is that it is cold, dark and devoid of oxygen, which is perfect for preserving biological material. “You could put a yogurt in permafrost and it might still be edible 50,000 years later.”

He also stated that the disappearance of Arctic sea ice, caused by global warming, is a huge risk to human health.

Mining plans

“This allows traffic and industrial development in Siberia. Massive mining operations are planned and huge holes are to be drilled into the deep permafrost to extract oil and ores. These operations will release massive amounts of pathogens that still thrive there. Miners will enter and inhale the viruses. The effects could be catastrophic.”

Scientists have long spoken out about the danger of introducing Methuselah into the modern world, saying they could be extremely difficult to combat given how different they are from modern pathogens.

Claverie, along with a group of other scientists, published research which showed that about one in a hundred ancient pathogens caused major disruptions in ecosystems.

Although the number seems small, the team’s research claims that four million cells are escaping from the permafrost each year at current rates.

“1% of 4 million is a number most people can’t even fathom. There are so many opportunities for this to happen.

“The chance is rare for a single virus, but there are so many possible viruses,” Corey Bradshaw, Director of the Global Ecology Laboratory at Flinders University in Australia, told CNN.

Last yearscientists from Russia, Germany and France identified six ancient diseases trapped in permafrost which had the potential to wreak untold destruction upon the world.