It's pretty hard to successfully dispute that Global Warming is a very real and looming reality that we all need to realize is the worlds own personal impending doom, but there are a lot more issues to be addressed than the polar bears losing their ice caps or increasing water and air temperatures. What is not quite so evident to the average non-scientist is that the melting polar ice caps bring on much more frightening dangers than rising sea levels.
While cities and towns are being decreased in size by the rising sea level, what is not talked about enough is the very real health risks that come along with the ice caps shrinking. See, there's this permafrost that has been around for years upon years and inside that permafrost are all the pathogens, germs, cells, and microbes that were around, alive and thriving all those years ago, and those germs can just stay dormant in that ice for as long as it takes for them to be released through ice melt.
So, that's the bad news, now here's the worse news: The more people abandon vaccinating themselves and their children for diseases and illnesses, especially for diseases that have thus far been eradicated from the United States, the easier it will be for those diseases lying in wait within the permafrost to latch onto and spread throughout our population the moment they are released from their icy jail. Not only do we have to deal with rising heat and humidity, but now the walking dead-diseases?
The reality of pathogens being re-released into our environments and populations is increasing by the day and, the way I see it, there are two ways to avoid the impending zombie-pathogen apocalypse. The first, in lieu of slowing, and hopefully eventually stopping, the possible outbreak, is to get global warming in check. Decrease your carbon footprint, decrease the greenhouse gasses you emit, and just treat our Mother Earth better in general.
The second, vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate!! Just because an illness has been deemed eradicated in the United States doesn't mean that it can't make a reappearance years later, and it could make an even bigger, grander entrance if we don't continue to vaccinate because we've gotten cocky in thinking we've beaten a disease that can never truly be beat.
Guess what? The longer people go without vaccinating against preventable diseases, the easier it will be for those diseases to kick our butts when they make their reappearance. Take measles, for instance, we thought they were eradicated in the early 2000's, and now here we are with outbreaks occurring frequently and fervently. When we take for granted our herd-immunity, we can get overzealous and we can lose our edge against the threat of returning diseases.
So, when we can't even beat diseases we thought were already eradicated through proper vaccination, what chance do we stand against pathogens that we don't know or expect and that we're not prepared for?
Global warming is scary enough as it is, what with rising sea levels, animal species rapidly falling towards extinction, and harmful rays from the sun beating down our atmospheric door, I don't know if we're ready for World War III against germs on top of all of that. So, let's not encourage the zombie-pathogen apocalypse, do your part, keep Mother Earth clean and let's get vaccinating, people!
