{"id":23920,"date":"2011-08-16T12:07:28","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T10:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=23920"},"modified":"2011-08-16T12:07:28","modified_gmt":"2011-08-16T10:07:28","slug":"amoeba-kills-humans-global-warming-ramification-top-science-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/amoeba-kills-humans-global-warming-ramification-top-science-weather\/","title":{"rendered":"Amoeba Kills Humans — Another Global Warming Ramification? (+ Top Science & Extreme Weather Stories)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A deadly, brain-eating amoeba<\/strong>\u00a0has killed at least one boy and one girl recently. The amoeba proliferates at high water temperatures. Water temperatures are higher than normal due to human-caused global warming. Connect the dots.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Seriously, have climate scientists not predicted more and more problems such as this due to global warming, which is without any doubt due to human greenhouse gas emissions? Still, I imagine, like me, you are a little surprised to hear about a brain-eating amoeba<\/a>\u00a0that is thriving in warm and stagnant waters, swimming up children’s and and teenagers’ noses, and eating away at their brains (primary amoebic meningoencephalitis<\/a> is the technical term).<\/p>\n

A boy in Virginia is reported to have died from from such an amoeba<\/a> recently (the first known death of this sort since 1969). A teenage girl in Florida died from one of these amoeba<\/a>\u00a0recently as well\u00a0after swimming in some freshwater lakes or smaller bodies of water in Volusia County.\u00a0“Her biological family has swam in that area for three generations and never had a problem,” her uncle said. “You would think more about alligators and snakes than you would a one-celled amoeba.”<\/p>\n

Such amoeba exist in every country of the world,\u00a0Dr. Bonnie Sorensen informs us, but it is only really dangerous in waters that go over 80 degrees.<\/p>\n

“Most U.S. infections from this amoeba have occurred in the southern tier of states,” the Daytona Beach News Journal reports. “Swimmers are urged to avoid all swimming areas except the ocean, springs and well-maintained swimming pools. When swimming in freshwater, use nose plugs.”<\/p>\n

Yet another thing to watch out for in a warming world.<\/p>\n

Here’s some more climate and environmental science news of the week, as well as some extreme weather news we haven’t covered yet:<\/p>\n

Record Snowstorm in New Zealand (yes, snow — or precipitation, in general — is expected to increase due to global warming as well, as it has been):<\/p>\n