每日英语听力

当前播放

Warming Climate Implies More Fliesand Disease

A recent analysis predicts that 40 percent of the world's insect species could go extinct within the next few decades.

The highest death tolls could be among butterflies,moths,bees and dung beetles.

Conspicuously absent from that list are houseflies.

Because they may actually do better in a hotter world.

"Under a warming scenario you'd have a larger fly population which is able to hang around for a longer period of time."Amy Greer,an epidemiologist and mathematical modeler at the University of Guelph in Ontario.

Plus,she says,flies are also more active when it's warm.

Meaning more chances to land on your picnic dips.

Greer's student Melanie Cousins,now a doctoral candidate at the University of Waterloo, explains the effect on us: "With this increase in fly population and fly activity, this may lead to more transmission of Campylobacter."The common foodborne illness,like the flies,fluctuates with the seasons.

"So with warmer temperatures Campylobacter will be able to replicate more efficiently." Cousins modeled both the insect and bacterial trends under different global warming scenarios.

And found that the uptick in fly population numbers did not matter much.

下载全新《每日英语听力》客户端,查看完整内容
点击播放