Climate Change Could Cause More People to Contract a Debilitating Illness

We haven't dipped into the "Ooooooo, ick!" file for a while, but this story from the Montana Free Press caused us to reopen that bad boy again.

As human-driven climate change makes winters shorter, ticks are spending less time hibernating and have more active months when they can hitch rides on animals and people. Sometimes the ticks carry themselves—and diseases—to new parts of the country. Hokit found deer ticks for the first time in northeastern Montana earlier this year. Deer ticks are infamous for transmitting Lyme disease and can infect people with other pathogens. Knowing a new species like the deer tick has arrived in Montana or other states is important for doctors.

Climate scientists—remember them?—have warned us for years that the climate crisis is going to be the best th