A mysterious crater appeared out of nowhere in Siberia about an year ago. The Internet back then was quick to pinpoint the obvious culprit – aliens. We always know it's the aliens. 
Since then at least seven of these creepy craters have been counted, each one creepier than the previous ones. The one on top looks humongous.
But it turns out Earth should hurry to issue a formal apology to the aliens, as the actual cause of the craters has been uncovered, and it is, to everyone's surprise, humans. It seems global warming disrupted the permafrost causing methane trapped inside the ground to explode. It's so freaky to picture it that I began fearing the ground under my building exploding – even if I live in an area where an alien intervention is genuinely more likely.
Global warming is already causing more than a hundred thousand deaths a year, 85% of which children deaths. Some are particularly nasty, like diarrhoea deaths. The number is expected to rise to 250 thousand by 2030-2050, and that's not counting the displaced people. (2004 WHO study PDF, WHO projections) Amidst these direct effects, we are only beginning to understand the strange parts of the ecosystem that become unexpected victims of climate change, such as koalas and trees. And did anyone ever think of the moose?
And now we have earth literally exploding. Thankfully, the area is sparsely populated. Even though the people are probably not happy about losing parts of that gas, at least nobody is going to die because of this. But the change in climate is making things happen, and some of them are surprising, and none of them are pretty.
Since then at least seven of these creepy craters have been counted, each one creepier than the previous ones. The one on top looks humongous.
But it turns out Earth should hurry to issue a formal apology to the aliens, as the actual cause of the craters has been uncovered, and it is, to everyone's surprise, humans. It seems global warming disrupted the permafrost causing methane trapped inside the ground to explode. It's so freaky to picture it that I began fearing the ground under my building exploding – even if I live in an area where an alien intervention is genuinely more likely.
Global warming is already causing more than a hundred thousand deaths a year, 85% of which children deaths. Some are particularly nasty, like diarrhoea deaths. The number is expected to rise to 250 thousand by 2030-2050, and that's not counting the displaced people. (2004 WHO study PDF, WHO projections) Amidst these direct effects, we are only beginning to understand the strange parts of the ecosystem that become unexpected victims of climate change, such as koalas and trees. And did anyone ever think of the moose?
And now we have earth literally exploding. Thankfully, the area is sparsely populated. Even though the people are probably not happy about losing parts of that gas, at least nobody is going to die because of this. But the change in climate is making things happen, and some of them are surprising, and none of them are pretty.
