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The Weirdest Ways The Universe Is Reversing Climate Change

Maybe mother Earth has a few cheeky tricks up her sleeve yet.
Bird poo is part of the solution.
Getty Images/iStockphoto
Bird poo is part of the solution.

Global warming is not going to be stopped with a few little quirks here and there, but as we watch our planet experience the warmest year on record, it's curious to see the small, unexpected ways change is being reversed.

Here are some examples of bizarre quirks that are leading to a decline in behaviour that contributes to climate change.

Bird poop clouds

Birds poop. That's what they do, and it's mostly really annoying, but in the arctic, bird poop is actually cooling the region.

New research published in the journal Nature Communications looked into the formation of clouds in the Arctic where a warming trend has been observed.

Clouds play a vital role in keeping the continent's temperature moderate and the researchers found the ammonia in bird poop was essentially seeding the clouds.

They found the birds came in summer, when the continent most needed cooling down, and their guano soon seeded clouds.

Good job, birds.

Tick-bourne meat allergies

Red meat production is one of many industries that contribute to greenhouse gases. Not only do cows belch methane, their pastures often mean cutting down carbon sequestering bushland to make space.

All in all, the world would be better off if less of us ate red meat.

Enter a bizarre allergy so strange, experts originally thought people were making it up.

It's hard to say no to a prime rib roast, unless eating it will cause anaphylaxis.
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It's hard to say no to a prime rib roast, unless eating it will cause anaphylaxis.

In the Northern Beaches of Sydney and a few locations in the U.S. people began presenting with a serious allergy to beef, pork and other mammalian meats. They had also all been bitten by ticks.

Basically the ticks bite a mammal, and then bite us, and our body then reclassifies a mammal protein called Alpha Gal as being dangerous along with tick saliva.

This relatively new allergy bars those affected from eating red meat, which, a RadioLab podcast participant Amy Pearl said, made it easier to do right by the planet.

Insane rent prices

For the first time in Australia's history, less young people are getting their driver licence then their parents' generation, led by steep declines in NSW and Victoria. These are also the two states with the highest rent prices for urban areas.

Cars contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, and while young people aren't forgoing vehicle ownership in the name of the environment, it's certainly a welcome trend.

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