Beware the ice, because you don't know what is going to pop up from under it!

The one thing we have never had to be scared of is ice.  We have so many other fears but now scientists are telling us - beware the snow, beware the icebergs, beware glaciers.

What does this mean? Well, in late 2017 a young boy who lived in Siberia - yes, people actually do live there - died after contracting anthrax.  Nobody could understand how he had got anthrax, it is not an easy disease to contract.  You have to be exposed to the actual virus which isn’t exactly just floating around.  Doctors were flummoxed but after a while, came up with a theory.

The  young kid had spent time in an area where the ice was melting. And hidden deep under the ice for the lat 75 years, were the remains of a reindeer.  As the ice melted, due to an unprecedented heat wave in Siberia, the reindeer was exposed.  It was the remains of the corpse that carried the anthrax.  And the young boy contracted the disease, and sadly, died.

He was not the only one exposed to the anthrax.  Many  people from the same village fell ill and were hospitalised.  Nobody else died, thank goodness, but the fears are real.  If one person died from anthrax that came from way down under the ice, many more can.

Scientists are worried about global warming, not just for the environment which is in itself a huge disaster, but because of the spread of disease.  We have never had to worry about what is under the ice, it’s always been safe.  But now, let’s start thinking about all the layers and layers of decay that are under ice.  There has been no danger, or even thought, of these old corpses coming up to the surface.  But global warming has made that a possibility now.

And we do need to beware of the ice!