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Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic
Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic | Emily Monosson
2 posts | 2 read | 1 to read
A prescient warning about the mysterious and deadly world of fungiand how to avert further loss across species, including our own. Fungi are everywhere. Most are harmless; some are helpful. A few are killers. Collectively, infectious fungi are the most devastating agents of disease on earth, and a fungus that can persist in the environment without its host is here to stay. In Blight, Emily Monosson documents how trade, travel, and a changing climate are making us all more vulnerable to invasion. Populations of bats, frogs, and salamanders face extinction. In the Northwest, Americas beloved national parks are covered with the spindly corpses of whitebark pines. Food crops are under siege, threatening our coffee, bananas, and wheatand, more broadly, our global food security. Candida auris, drug-resistant and resilient, infects hospital patients and those with weakened immune systems. Coccidioides, which lives in drier dusty regions, may cause infection in apparently healthy people. The horrors go on. Yet prevention is not impossible. Tracing the history of fungal spread and the most recent discoveries in the field, Monosson meets scientists who are working tirelessly to protect species under threat, and whose innovative approaches to fungal invasion have the potential to save human lives. Delving into case studies at once fascinating, sobering, and hopeful, Blight serves as a wake-up call, a reminder of the delicate interconnectedness of the natural world, and a lesson in seeing life on our planet with renewed humility and awe.
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Decalino
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While Merlin Sheldrake's book Entangled Life highlighted the many amazing aspects of fungi, this book focuses on the threat posed when they are introduced into new environments & hosts with no resistance. The results can be devastating, as in the case of the American chestnut, bats wiped out by white-nose syndrome, or monoculture bananas. The author highlights the crucial importance of genetic diversity and recognition of our interconnected world.

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Megabooks
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Eh. This was just okay for me personally. She lays out fears of coming fungal pandemics to Earth‘s living things due to global warming. A lot of the book was about plant biology, which I don‘t find as interesting as animals/humans. I did like her info about white nose syndrome in bats and hard-to-treat ear yeast infections in humans. I think someone more interested in plants would enjoy this more. 🤷🏻‍♀️

catiewithac I just bought this yesterday. The problem with Candida auris is very real in the hospital and nursing home communities. 1y
Megabooks @catiewithac yes, I would‘ve loved to read even more about that. Dogs are more frequently getting yeast infections in their ears too. When I first started working working in vet med, bacterial were more common, but when I left private practice yeast were. Fortunately most are still susceptible to clotrimazole topically. (Dogs and cats typically get otitis externa, which responds well to topicals, as opposed to otitis media in humans.) (edited) 1y
Cinfhen Think I‘ll pass on this one☺️ 1y
BarbaraBB Me too! 1y
Megabooks @Cinfhen @BarbaraBB 👍🏻👍🏻💜 1y
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