Climate change is bringing with it all sorts of dangers, from extreme heat, to drought, to rising sea levels and water scarcity. However now, according to researchers from Emory University in Georgia, global warming is also making our planet’s venomous snakes even more dangerous.
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00:00Climate change is bringing with it all sorts of dangers, from extreme heat to drought to
00:08rising sea levels and water scarcity.
00:11However, now, according to researchers from Emory University in Georgia, global warming
00:15is also making our planet's venomous snakes even more dangerous.
00:19It's long been known that snake behavior changes with the seasons, however now the
00:22researchers have found a direct link between the temperature rising and your chances of
00:27being bitten.
00:28They came to this conclusion by looking at 3,908 venomous snake-related hospital visits
00:32between the years 2014 and 2020, finding that for every single degree Celsius of temperature
00:38increase, there was a 6% increased chance of being bitten by one of these snakes.
00:42They add that while they can't provide a direct reason for why this occurs, it's likely due
00:46to multiple factors.
00:47One of those is that snakes and humans are more active when the weather is warmer, meaning
00:51people are likely treading in snake territory while those snakes are also moving around
00:55in alert.
00:56However, there seems to be a threshold as well, as spring actually had the highest association
00:59between higher temperatures and snake bites.
01:02According to the World Health Organization, there are over 5 million venomous snake bites
01:06reported every year, resulting in upwards of 138,000 deaths.