20 Weird Ways Climate Change Affects Us
3. Siberia is turning into an enormous, flammable trampoline
They Siberian Arctic is full of permafrost, which is soil that is supposed to remain frozen year round. But that geographic area is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the world, and the soil has begun thawing.
Trapped in this soil are microbes that produce methane in warm, low oxygen conditions as they digest the defrosting biomass. Much of that methane is escaping into the atmosphere, but a lot is getting temporarily trapped in underground pockets of wet earth.
Meaning there are around 7,000 sites around Siberia where the soil is legitimately bouncy now right mow, but also explosive.
6. There will be less nature sounds
This one may sound obvious, but here’s something you may not have thought of. If you go to a forest and listen, you may notice that sounds of different animals tend to exist in different ranges of notes that sound harmonious rather than clashing and cacophonous, like an orchestra. Think the baritone croak of a frog vs. the alto rush of a creak vs. a soprano songbird. This happened evolutionarily because it is advantageous for animals to pinpoint those of their own species. This orchestra will decrease, maybe to a lonely note.
9. Ancient diseases may reemerge
There is a possibility that as ice frozen for thousands of years thaws, long-frozen corpses of the ancient dead will resurface. As their bodies get discovered by the modern man, long-dormant diseases may resurface as well.
In 2016, there was an Anthrax outbreak that hospitalized a dozen humans, killed a child, and killed thousands of deer in Siberia. It is thought to have originated from the thawed, 75-year old carcass of a deer that was infected by the bacteria decades ago.
12. American rivers are changing color
From 1984 to 2018, scientists compiled satellite images of rivers across America and found that a third of them had changed in hue. In 2018, 56% appeared yellow, 38% green, only 5% appeared blue.
Although the exact reason is unknown, it is probably due to agricultural runoff causing algae blooms, as well as pollution, changes in river flow, and rising water temperatures.
15. Shark attack odds are increasing
Thanks to rising sea temperatures, juvenile sharks are being prompted to expand their territories and swim in new waters more frequently. Shark bites are still extremely rare but odds are increasing, in part due to climate change.
19. There will be more tropical storms
There will be more tropical storms like hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones. When the ocean warms, evaporation increases, and when the atmosphere warms, the amount of water vapor it can hold increases. Together, this means future storms will occur more frequently and unleash more rain at a greater force.
So invest in a good umbrella, maybe.