An international team of researchers studying the long term effects of electromagnetic waves like those emitted by cell phones on mice were surprised to find they protected their brains against Alzheimer’s and even reversed the memory damage caused by the disease.

The study was the work of neuroscientists, electrical engineers, and neurologists from universities in the US, Japan and China, and is being published online on 7 January in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. The study was led by University of South Florida (USF) researchers at Florida’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), a statewide project sponsored by the National Institute on Aging.

One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease is the accumulation of sticky deposits or plaques of beta-amyloid protein in the brain.

While it is not clear what role plaques play in Alzheimer’s, many experts believe they stop brain cells communicating with each other and also disrupt other processes that cells rely on to survive. Most treatments for Alzheimer’s try to target beta-amyloid protein.

In this study, researchers took mice genetically engineered to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, exposed them to cell phone waves and discovered the electromagnetic radiation prevented build up of amyloid protein in the brains of young mice, erased deposits of the protein in the brains of old Alzheimer’s mice, and also reversed memory damage.

Lead author of the study, USF research professor Dr Gary Arendash told the press that:

“It surprised us to find that cell phone exposure, begun in early adulthood, protects the memory of mice otherwise destined to develop Alzheimer’s symptoms.”

“It was even more astonishing that the electromagnetic waves generated by cell phones actually reversed memory impairment in old Alzheimer’s mice.”

A USF statement describes the study as “highly-controlled”: the researchers were able to isolate the effects of cell phone exposure from other lifestyle factors like diet and exercise.

For the study the researchers used 96 mice, most of which where genetically altered to develop beta-amyloid plaques and memory problems mimicking Alzheimer’s disease as they got older (the “Alzheimer’s mice). The others were not genetically engineered in this way and acted as controls (the “normal” mice).

The researchers exposed both groups of mice: the ones genetically predisposed to develop Alzheimer’s and the normal controls, to an electromagnetic field like that generated by standard cell phones for two periods lasting one hour each every day for between seven and nine months.

To achieve this effect the researchers arranged the animals’s cages in a circle around an antenna generating the cell phone signal. All the animals were kept at the the same distance from the antenna and exposed to electromagnetic waves typically emitted by a cell phone pressed up against a human head, said the USF researchers in a statement.

The results showed that:

* Exposure started when they were young adults, ie before showing signs of memory impairment, appeared to protect the Alzheimer’s mice from becoming cognitively impaired.

* Exposed older Alzheimer’s mice performed as well on tests measuring memory and thinking skills as normal older mice without dementia.

* When older, previously unexposed Alzheimer’s mice already showing memory problems were exposed to the electromagnetic field, their memory impairment vanished.

* Normal mice exposed to the electromagnetic waves for several months showed above normal memory performance.

To assess the mice’s memory skills, the researchers adapted a test designed to assess mild cognitive impairment in humans.

“Since we selected electromagnetic parameters that were identical to human cell phone use and tested mice in a task closely analogous to a human memory test, we believe our findings could have considerable relevance to humans, said Arendash.

It took several months for the effects of the electromagnetic wave exposure to show in the mice: this suggests it would take years in humans.

Arendash and colleagues concluded that electromagnetic field exposure could be an effective, drug-free, non-invasive way to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease in humans.

They are now investigating the effect of different frequencies and strengths of electromagnetic radiation: eg will it be more or less rapid, and will the cognitive benefits be greater or less, than they found in this study.

Co-author of the study and major member of the USF team, Dr Chuanhai Cao, said:

“If we can determine the best set of electromagnetic parameters to effectively prevent beta-amyloid aggregation and remove pre-existing beta amyloid deposits from the brain, this technology could be quickly translated to human benefit against AD [Alzheimer's disease]“.

“Since production and aggregation of beta-amyloid occurs in traumatic brain injury, particularly in soldiers during war, the therapeutic impact of our findings may extend beyond Alzheimer’s disease,” said Cao.

When they monitored the mice during their one-hour exposures when the electromagnetic field was turned on, the researchers noticed that after several months, the brain temperature of the Alzheimer’s mice rose slightly; this did not happen in the normal mice.

Speculating on this observation in the light of the other results, the researchers suggest perhaps the temperature increase helped brain cells to release the newly-formed beta-amyloid plaques.

As an explanation for the improved memory function in the normal mice after months of exposure, they suggested perhaps the electromagnetic waves increased brain activity by boosting blood flow and energy metabolism in the brain.

“Our study provides evidence that long-term cell phone use is not harmful to brain,” said Cao, adding that:

“To the contrary, the electromagnetic waves emitted by cell phones could actually improve normal memory and be an effective therapy against memory impairment.”

Arendash said it will be a while yet before we know exactly what is going on: how the waves produce these beneficial effects on memory. But one thing is clear he said:

“The cognitive benefits of long-term electromagnetic exposure are real, because we saw them in both protection- and treatment-based experiments involving Alzheimer’s mice, as well as in normal mice.”

Researchers in Italy and Switzerland suggest there is a link between primary lung cancer in dogs and dust matter accumulating in the lungs from exposure to air pollution.

The study was the work of Dr Giuliano Bettini, an associate professor at the Department of Veterinary Public Health and Animal Pathology in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Bologna in Italy, and colleagues, and is currently in press, however an online corrected proof version was made available on 30 December.

Together with co-authors from the University of Bologna, the Animal Oncology and Imaging Center in Hünenberg, Switzerland and the Clinic for Small Animal Internal Medicine at the University of Zürich, also in Switzerland, Bettini set out to investigate links between the accumulation of black dust matter in lungs (anthracosis) and primary lung cancer in dogs.

For the retrospective study the examined lung tissue from 35 dogs with primary lung cancer and 160 healthy dogs (the controls).

They used light microscopy to measure key characteristics such as amount and histological appearance and other signs of anthracosis in the lung tissue, and then calcualated the odds ratio (OR) between these measurements and the incidence of primary lung cancer in the subjects.

They used the same measures to see if there were any links between tumor histotype, histological grade, and clinical stage.

The results showed that:

* The most commonly diagnosed tumor type was Papillary adenocarcinoma.

* Papillary adenocarcinoma accounted for 45.7 per cent of the diagnoses.

* Most of the tumors were of histological grade II.

* The lung cancer was more often localized (clinical stage I).

* Dogs with higher amounts of anthracosis showed a significantly higher (more than double) risk of having lung cancer (OR was 2.11, with 95 per cent confidence interval ranging from 1.20 to 3.70, P < 0.01).

The authors concluded that that this last result suggests “an association between anthracosis due to inhalation of polluted air and lung cancer in dogs”.

An international team of scientists has found that cells that protect nerves are likely to be the origins of a fatal cancer known as Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) that is spreading rapidly through populations of Tasmanian devils in Australia: if unchecked, scientists estimate the cancer, which is spread through biting, could wipe out the wild devil population within the next 30 years or so.

The findings are the subject of a collaborative study led by Australian scientists that was published in the international journal Science on 1 January.

Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) is a transmissible cancer that affects only the Tasmanian devil, a carnivorous marsupial about the size of a small dog that is found in Australia and Tasmania. The disease causes large tumours that occur mostly on the face and mouth but also spreads to internal organs.

First reported in 1996, DFTD spreads by biting and quickly kills infected animals; so much so, they are now considered an endangered species facing extinction.

In this study, the researchers traced the origins of DFTD to a type of cell that protects peripheral nerve fibres, the Schwann cell. They extracted genetic data from biopsies of Tasmanian devil tumours and identified a genetic marker that could be used to diagnose DFTD.

Dr Elizabeth Murchison led the study when she was at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, and at the Australian National University in Canberra. She told the media that pinpointing the Schwann cell as the origin of the disease was an important discovery because there are no diagnostic tests, treatments or vaccines for DFTD.

Dr Tony Papenfuss, a geneticist at Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, led the part of the study that discovered which genes were switched on in the tumours and identified their genetic signature:

“When we compared the signature of the tumours to other normal tissues we found the tumours were most like Schwann cells,” he told the press.

Murchison, Papenfuss and colleagues pinpointed networks of genes that may be important in the development and transmission of tumours. They also found that the tumours strongly express a gene for myelin basic protein, which is an important constituent of the sheaths that protect nerve fibres.

Out of the 20 tumour-specific genes they identified, they found that 9 played a role in myelination. They also discovered that DFTD tumours, and cells that had spread to other organs, tested positive for periaxin, a Schwann-cell protein, and other types of tumour did not test positive for this protein, suggesting it would make a reliable diagnostic marker for DFTD.

“Devils develop tumours of all different types and the genetic markers we have identified are useful for telling apart the tumours that occur in DFTD from other kinds of tumours,” said co-author Dr Greg Woods, Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania’s Menzies Research Institute.

Papenfuss explained that:

“Differentiating between the devil facial tumour disease and some other tumour is particularly important, especially when it comes to the insurance population programme.”

The insurance programme is a captive population of less than 200 uninfected Tasmanian devils held at zoos and parks in Tasmania and mainland Australia; conservationists aim to increase that population to at least 500.

Tamara Keeley, a reproductive biologist at the Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo in New South Wales, Australia, and not a co-author of the study, said that the biggest problem for conservationists was the absence of a test for DFTD. Currently, to prevent spread in the wild, conservation workers kill devils that show signs of the disease, but many infected animals can go undetected.

“If we had a blood test, we could remove disease carriers in the hopes of managing the wild population,” said Keeley.

Although the insurance programme has not captured wild Tasmanian devils since 2008, a diagnostic test would help with future efforts, she explained.

The study also suggested clues for how DFTD may dodge the immune system. Co-author Dr Alexandre Kreiss, from the University of Tasmania’s Menzies Research Institute in Hobart, where he is working on a vaccination programme, said Tasmanian devils are genetically very similar to each other, and it could be that the cancer cells from another devil are not recognized as foreign when they enter a new host.

On the other hand, it could be because the origin is in the peripheral nervous system, which is rarely targeted by the immune system, said Kreiss, and it might explain why experiments with irradiated cancer cells at the Menzies Research Institute have been disappointing. He explained to Nature News that only one out of six devils mounted an immune response in a recent vaccination trial.

Papenfuss said that although a vaccine against DFTD was still a long way off, we now have “a good start on a set of genomic tools we can move forward with”.

A new US study found that socially isolated female rats developed more breast cancer tumors, including a higher number of malignant tumors, leading the researchers to suspect that the stress of isolation from a group triggered fear and anxiety which in turn increased susceptibility to and the deadliness of breast cancer. The results suggest there is a likelihood of a similar link in humans because like rats, we are a gregarious, social species.

The study is to be published in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and is the work of researchers at Yale University and the University of Chicago.

First author, Dr Gretchen Hermes, formerly a researcher at the University of Chicago, and now a resident in the Neurosciences Research Training Program in the Yale Department of Psychiatry, told the media that:

“There is a growing interest in relationships between the environment, emotion and disease. This study offers insight into how the social world gets under the skin.”

Led by senior author Dr Martha K McClintock, the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology and Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago, the researchers monitored how mammary tumors developed spontaneously in rats living on their own and in groups.

Although spontaneous tumors occurred naturally in both groups, they found that the isolated rats developed significantly more tumors as the rats living in social groups. They also found that the tumors in the isolated rats were of a more malignant type.

The results showed that:

* Isolated rats who experienced the same stressors as rats linving in groups, such as being briefly constrained or sensing the smell of a predator, produced more of the stress hormone corticosterone.

* Isolated rats took longer to recover from a stressful episode than rats living in groups.

* While the stress hormone receptor entered the nucleus of mammary tumor cells (where gene regulation occurs) in both isolated and colony rats, it happend more often in the isolated rats.

* Isolated rats had a 135 per cent increase in the number of tumors and an 8,000 per cent increase in tumor size compared to colony rats.

* The effect of isolation was greater than other environmental factors, such as unlimited availability of high-energy food.

The researchers said the results suggested that living alone caused rats from a young age to have higher stress hormones, and experience higher levels of fear, anxiety and vigilance and this made them more prone to malignancy in late-middle age.

The researchers have shown in previous studies that fearful and anxious rats were more prone to tumors and death. And other studies have linked stress to various negative health outcomes, including the possibility that it may switch off the genes that suppress cancer.

Hermes proposed that the study showed a physiological link between loss of social networks and disease states that “may help explain the shortened life expectancy of individuals with mental illness”.

She suggested we need to look more closely at the health effects of isolation on a broad range of human diseases, and psychiatric disorders in particular.

“The costs of social neglect have unique relevance for psychiatric patients, the natural history of psychiatric illness and the profound co-morbidities associated with mental disease,” said Hermes.

McClintock agreed:

“We need to use these findings to identify potential targets for intervention to reduce cancer and other and its psychological and social risk factors.”

“In order to do that, we need to look at the problem from a variety of perspectives, including examining the sources of stress in neighborhoods as well as the biological aspects of cancer development,” she added.

This year, hundreds of thousands of women and pet dogs will undergo a hysterectomy and have their ovaries removed along with their uterus. Now, two independent research studies looking at longevity may challenge almost four decades of standard operating procedures used in women and in pets.

Research published Tuesday (Dec. 1) shows female dogs that keep their ovaries longer also live longer. The study, exploring the factors that favor successful aging in pet dogs, was conducted by a research team led by David J. Waters, a doctor of veterinary medicine.

Waters’ work is the first investigation to look for a link between retaining ovaries and reaching exceptional longevity in mammals. Waters is executive director of the Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation, based at the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette. The Murphy Foundation is home to the Center for Exceptional Longevity Studies, which tracks the oldest living pet dogs in the United States.

The researchers collected and analyzed lifetime medical histories, ages and causes of death for 119 canine “centenarians” – exceptionally long-lived Rottweiler dogs living in the United States and Canada that survived to 13 years, which is 30 percent longer than average Rottweilers. These exceptionally long-lived dogs were compared to a group of 186 Rottweilers that had usual longevity, approximately nine years.

“A female survival advantage in humans is well-documented – women outnumber men by 4:1 among those who reach 100,” said Waters, who is associate director of Purdue University’s Center on Aging and the Life Course and a professor in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences. “Like women, female dogs in our study had a distinct survival advantage over males. But taking away ovaries during the first four years of life completely erased the female survival advantage. We found that female Rottweilers that kept their ovaries for at least six years were four times more likely to reach exceptional longevity compared to females who had the shortest lifetime ovary exposure.

“Clearly, we have tapped into a unique resource with our Exceptional Longevity Database. We like to think of it as the pet dog equivalent of the New England Centenarian Study. We want to better understand the biology of aging. Our quest to validate pet dogs as a model for the study of healthy human aging is at the core of this research.”

Murphy Foundation scientists think it is time to tackle a new set of research questions relevant to the biology behind aging. At the top of the list are identifying ovary-sensitive processes that may influence the rate of aging and defining the critical window of ovary exposure that optimizes longevity.

The pet dog research published in Aging Cell mirrors the findings of the Nurses’ Health Study published this summer by Dr. William Parker and colleagues from the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, Calif.

Parker’s group studied more than 29,000 women who underwent a hysterectomy for benign uterine disease. The findings showed that the upside of ovary removal – protection against ovarian, uterine and breast cancer – was outweighed by increased mortality from other causes. As a result, longevity was cut short in women who lost their ovaries before the age of 50 compared with those who kept their ovaries for at least 50 years.

“For the last 35 years, most doctors have been routinely advising women undergoing hysterectomy to have their ovaries removed to prevent ovarian cancer,” Parker said. “We believe that such an automatic recommendation is no longer warranted.”

Waters believes it boils down to systems thinking.

“Nobody would argue that taking the caterpillars out of an environment does not change that environment in unforeseen ways,” he said. “You’re not simply left with the old environment minus caterpillars. Likewise, we are dealing with an ovarian ecology that urges us to pause and consider the long-term health consequences of taking out ovaries.”

Taken together, the emerging message for dogs and women seems to be that when it comes to longevity, it pays to keep your ovaries.

“What we have here is a compelling convergence,” Waters said. “The data from women and dogs, together with reported longevity benefits from ovary transplants in mice, are pointing in the same direction – the notion that a network of processes regulating longevity is under ovarian control.”

Parker believes the results point to a need for a new conversation between patient and doctor, framed by the patient’s specific risk factors and personal concerns. Waters concurs.

“In this era of personalized medicine, it seems only fitting that we should be directing the conversation about elective ovary removal in women and dogs toward a more forward-looking, individualized script,” Waters said.

VCA Animal Hospitals announced that VCA Palmetto Animal Hospital near the Myrtle Beach fires is offering free boarding for companion animals whose families have been evacuated or displaced as a result of the current firestorms. VCA Palmetto Animal Hospital is located at 2350 Highway 501 East, Conway, South Carolina and can provide a safe environment for pets that have been affected by the fires on a space available basis from now through April 30, 2009, or as long as the fires persist.

“As families are being evacuated to shelters or facing the loss of their homes, VCA hopes to ease their burden by offering free boarding for pets so they can focus on the critical issues with their families and homes,” said Art Antin, Chief Operating Officer of VCA Animal Hospitals. “About 10 pets have already been taken in from evacuated families and we want everyone to know that they have this option to keep their pets safe during this difficult time.”

Boarding assistance for pets is based on space availability at VCA Palmetto and owners can call 843.347.1144 to ensure that the facility has space available to accept additional pets.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) announced a $1.2 million partnership to enhance animal health expertise in Canada.

“Our Government is delivering smart investments today to prepare the leaders of tomorrow,” said Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Member of Parliament Gail Shea (Egmont) on behalf of Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. “This partnership will strengthen Canada’s animal disease prevention and control efforts, thereby reducing the social and economic consequences of animal disease outbreaks.”

The new Canadian Regulatory Veterinary Epidemiology Network (CRVE-Net) will link Canada’s five veterinary schools and contribute to the development of research and training programs at the universities. It will be led by the Centre for Veterinary Epidemiological Research at the Atlantic Veterinary College which is considered one of the leading centres for animal health epidemiological research in the world. The initiative will employ several students attending the college.

The initial phases of the project will see the establishment of a Research Chair in Regulatory Veterinary Epidemiology at the Atlantic Veterinary College at UPEI, as well as graduate positions in epidemiological surveillance, risk analysis, and disease modelling. This partnership between the CFIA and the Atlantic Veterinary College will create new synergies and help attract further investments as well as, provide excellent training opportunities for veterinarians and summer students.

“This network will further strengthen our ability to understand and respond to animal health and zoonotic disease challenges in a world of ever changing risks,” said Dr. Brian Evans, Chief Veterinary Officer of Canada. “It will also fulfill national and international needs by drawing upon and encouraging the development of advanced veterinary expertise in specialized areas.”

“The Atlantic Veterinary College is eager to contribute expertise and leadership to the development of CRVE-Net and our shared priority of developing highly skilled professionals committed to protecting the health of all species,” said Dr. Donald L. Reynolds, Dean of the Atlantic Veterinary College.

Graduates from CRVE-Net programs will help meet the national and international demand for additional animal and veterinary public health experts.

The total number of confirmed cases in recent months of swine flu in the US now comes to 7, with the addition earlier this month of two infected children living in adjacent counties in southern California. None of the infected people had been in contact with pigs, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The latest status report from the CDC, as of 3 pm EST yesterday, shows that 5 of the lab confirmed cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection are from California (in San Diego County and Imperial County) and the other 2 are from Texas (both in San Antonio). All patients have now recovered.

In the case of the two children, tests revealed they had become infected with viruses that were related genetically but contained a “unique combination of gene segments that previously has not been reported among swine or human influenza viruses in the United States or elsewhere”, said the CDC in their April 21 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

The two strains were also resistant to amantadine and rimantadine, the usual treatment for swine flu.

Swine influenza (swine flu) is a disease that regularly affects pigs. It is caused by a type A influenza virus that does not normally infect humans, although we can catch it, mostly from being near infected pigs, although it is possible for it to spread from human to human.

Symptoms are usually similar to those of regular human seasonal influenza and include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. These can sometimes be accompanied by a runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The illness is rarely fatal.

In the past, the CDC has received reports of swine flu in humans at a rate of about one every one or two years. But from December 2005 to January 2009, there have been 12 cases (a rate of 4 a year) in 10 different states. Five cases were patients who came into direct contact with pigs, six were patients who had been near pigs, and one had unknown exposure. And then in the last two months, 5 reported cases in California.

The agency said that while it looks as if the numbers of swine flu cases in humans are starting to rise, it could just be due to better testing facilities in public health labs. However, it could also be due to genetic changes in swine flu and it is important to investigate each case to make sure that new strains are not spreading more easily among humans.

In the case of the two children, they were not exposed to pigs, and members of their family had also reported flu like symptoms around the time they were infected.

This information increases the possibility that the new strain is spreading from human to human, said the CDC, who warned that doctors treating patients with flu symptoms who either live in San Diego and Imperial counties, or have travelled there in the seven days before their symptoms emerged, or have been in contact with people who live or have travelled there, should bear in mind that they could be infected with animal flu.

Doctors treating any flu patient who may have been in contact with pigs or been near pigs such as at a fair or animal display should also take note, said the agency.

Doctors who suspect a patient has swine flu should take a nasopharyngeal swab, put it in a viral transport container, and contact their state or local health department to find out how to send it quickly to a state public health laboratory.

The CDC said state public health labs should send all influenza A specimens that they can’t subtype to the CDC Influenza Division’s Virus Surveillance and Diagnostics Branch Laboratory.
Long Haired Cats

World Veterinary Day (WVD) takes place annually on the last Saturday of April and this year veterinary professionals from around the world join together on April 25 to celebrate their diverse and occasionally overlooked roles in the communities in which they serve.

The theme of this year’s celebration is ‘veterinarians and livestock farmers: a winning partnership’ and sets to highlight the pivotal role veterinarians play between livestock and society in general.

The British Veterinary Association’s Overseas Group, through its remit to facilitate and encourage veterinary development and services in developing countries, celebrates WVD with colleagues from all corners of the globe but with special reference to those working to improve the health and welfare of both human and animals in some of the poorest areas of the world.

“According to the World Health Organization, in today’s world 411 million people are poor livestock keepers and farmers who rely on animals for livelihood security” said Karen Reed, Chairman of the Overseas Group. “In commemorating World Veterinary Day on Saturday we can see how this figure alone easily demonstrates how the veterinary profession plays a crucial role in international development issues. However, the remit of the veterinary profession is much broader than one of animal health alone. All over the world, vets are responsible for public health issues which include food safety, biosecurity, zoonotic disease spread and socio-veterinary interactions. ”

Following on from the Overseas Group’s successful programme at BVA Congress 2008 where the theme of ‘livestock and livelihoods’ saw talks and discussion on topics from empowerment through livestock and human-animal interdependence, this year’s Congress session looks at support for the animal health profession overseas with talks on four decades of the Commonwealth Veterinary Association activity and unlocking the potential for Africa’s livestock keepers and farmers.

Overseas Group member Tess Sprayson commented “The close proximity between animal and human health and subsequent welfare becomes ever more apparent. Key issues that affect humanity are reflected in questions for the veterinary profession – the effect of climate change on livestock production has already started to be seen in regions of East Africa, South East Asia and the Pacific. The emergence of conditions such as SARS, West Nile Fever and avian ‘flu have started to produce One Health policies, where medical and veterinary professions are joining forces in recognition for the need of an integrated approach to public health.”

Highlighting the contribution of the veterinary profession to society, Karen Reed added “Within the profession there is increasing interest in the social and economic aspects of livestock keeping but also acknowledgement that poor livestock keepers are highly vulnerable to crises. The veterinary profession is a diverse one and currently development vets are involved with projects that many would not consider typically ‘veterinary’. Such projects include helping HIV/AIDS-affected communities with sustainable livelihood interventions, the implications of gender and livestock husbandry, how barriers in livestock trade can be overcome and how pastoralists can cope with climate change.”