A fungal pathogen wiped out the world’s most popular banana, the Gros Michel, in the first half of the 20th century. White-nose syndrome, a fungal illness in bats, has killed millions of the winged critters across North America. In her new book, Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic, author, professor, and researcher Emily Monosson unravels the expansive and unsettling history of fungal invasions across the globe and how they have shaped our lives in both visible and invisible ways.Ī fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, has wiped out more than 200 species of frogs and other amphibians. When the real fungal pandemic comes, it won’t look like anything you’ve seen on screen. But the world’s susceptibility to fungal pathogens is genuine. The fungus depicted in the show, cordyceps, is harmless to humans. That’s one of the first scenes in The Last of Us, the HBO show about a global fungal pandemic that gripped viewers this past winter. Instead of teeth in the woman’s mouth, it’s long tendrils of fungus. She opens the front door and encounters a horrific scene: a zombified grandma committing an act of cannibalism. This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.Ī young girl, home alone, wakes up in the middle of the night and walks over to her neighbor’s house. Kateryna Kon / Science Photo Library / AP Images A digital depiction of Basidiobolus ranarum, a fungus that causes chronic inflammatory subcutaneous mucormycosis, resulting in swelling and masses under the skin.
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