Speaker
Description
Every year, more than 1 million cases of scorpion envenomation are reported worldwide. Scorpions are thermophilic organisms. They are sensitive to weather and climate conditions; in such a way, the ongoing trends of increasing temperature and more variable weather could lead to scorpionism spreading. There has been considerable debate as to whether global envenomation will be impacted by climate change, which has focused on snake and spider envenomation risk. This debate didn’t give enough interest to scorpion stings and their burden risks, despite their widespread potential effects in many regions. Here, the authors review how climate and climate change may impact scorpion activity as well as scorpion envenomation. They contrast the ecological and behavioral characteristics of these arthropods, and how weather, climate, climate change, and socioeconomic factors may have very different impacts on the spatiotemporal occurrence and abundance of scorpions, and the resulting scorpion envenomation.
Keywords: Scorpion envenomation, Climate change, Thermophilic organisms, Weather variability, Spatiotemporal distribution, Public health risk, Ecological adaptation
