No, Climate Change Isn’t Causing Dangerous Fungus Outbreaks
By Admin
February 27, 2026
8:57 pm
By Anthony Watts
In the Earth.com article “Deadly fungus that will ‘eat you from the inside out’ is quickly spreading around the world,” Eric Ralls presents a dramatic warning that Aspergillus fungi are expanding their range due to climate change and threatening millions of people. This is false. The story’s most alarming claims are not based on observed fungal spread, but on model projections under a carbon dioxide high-emissions scenario. The article’s tone suggests ongoing, measurable expansion, but the underlying study only models hypothetical future distributions.
The headline claims a “Deadly fungus that will ‘eat you from the inside out’ is quickly spreading around the world.” That false and inflammatory phrase appears in the title — not in the scientific content itself. Nowhere in the body of the article does the phrase “eat you from the inside out” appear in a clinical or epidemiological context. This suggests it is clickbait framing layered onto a modeling paper.
The central numbers driving the alarm come from a carbon dioxide high-emissions scenario, specifically a derivative of RCP 8.5, an assemblage of computer model outputs that most scientists have abandoned as being highly unrealistic or unlikely. The National Center for Atmospheric Research says that RCP 8.5 is “not considered a likely scenario,” and Climate Realism has repeatedly debunked its continued use, here, here, and here, for example, pointing out that it is more than just unlikely but rather that based on the carbon stored on land and in oceans, it is probably impossible.
https://www.climatedepot.com/2026/02/27/no-climate-change-isnt-causing-dangerous-fungus-outbreaks/
