Climate change: melting Tibetan glaciers could unleash potentially dangerous bacteria, scientists say | South China Morning Post

Scientists have found nearly 1,000 species of bacteria - many of them new - in glacier samples taken from the Tibetan Plateau, which they say could pose health risks downstream if climate change causes the ice to melt. More than 80 per cent of the microbes identified had not been seen before, according to the team from China, Australia and Denmark, led by scientists from Lanzhou University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Their genetic analysis found that the microorganisms had more than 27,000 molecules that could help the bacteria to make plants, animals or people ill, and nearly half…