Luckily, this particular germ only has an appetite for amoebas, but the researchers who discovered it raised concerns that the melting permafrost could revive a virus such as smallpox (or alien viruses with a bone to pick with Kurt Russell).
And speaking of disgusting single-cell organisms ...
2
It's Allowing "Rock Snot" to Infiltrate Our Waterways
You know how sometimes horror movies use lighting (or lack thereof), pacing, and music to build a mounting sense of dread, while other times they jump straight to the gross-out? Well, that second technique must've been what climate change had in mind when it egged on the proliferation of "rock snot."
Michel Chouinard
Seriously, bare-handed and shorts is how you're tackling this?
A new study suggests that this supremely mucky species of algae, technically named didymo (although we have no idea why anyone would use that term after hearing "rock snot"), has enjoyed unprecedented expansion throughout the U.S., New Zealand, Europe, and Canada over the past couple decades thanks to climate change. Rock snot prefers to clog up rocky, fast-flowing waterways.
971 Comments