The biggest dog sledding race in the world is having major problems. You already know why.
OK, climate change, this really isn't cool anymore.
Photo by Eric Wustenhagen/Flickr.
It's bad enough that you're playing havoc with weather patterns, spreading drought and disease, and displacing millions of people worldwide.
Do you have to ruin everything we loved from our childhood too?
You're slowly but surely wrecking polar bears.
Jump for your life!!! Photo by Arturo de Frias Marques/Wikimedia Commons.
And snowmen.
Do you want to build a ... welp. Um. Photo by E Greens/Flickr.
And The Maldives.
The Maldives were really popular for three weeks in 1995. After yo-yos but before Tamagotchis. Turtle photo by Ahmed Abdul Rahman/Wikimedia Commons. Beach photo by Elite Diving Agency/Wikimedia Commons. Manta Ray photo by Shiyam ElkCloner/Wikimedia Commons. Fish photo by poolpe/Pixabay.
Now, you're seriously going after the Iditarod?
Photo by Jim Watson/Getty Images.
We all learned about — and loved — the Iditarod in the third grade.
It was a big deal for us! It's the reason we have vague nostalgia for diphtheria of all things.
If you grew up within 50 miles of New York City, chances are you took a field trip to the statue of Balto in Central Park.
We all rooted for Mackenzie Astin to rally and cross that finish line to prove to his dead father he was a winner, dammit.
"Iron Will" was not about the actual Iditarod, but — let's be honest — our substitute teacher led us to believe it was. GIF via What the Buck/Tumblr.
For an 8-year-old, what's not to love about a 1,000-mile sled dog race? What's not to love about an 1,000-mile sled dog race for a grown man or woman?
This year, race organizers were forced to shorten the ceremonial beginning of the race ... because there wasn't enough snow. In Anchorage, Alaska.
Photo by Jim Watson/Getty Images.
According to a CNN report, there was so little powder in the area that tons of snow had to be trucked in to make even the dramatically shortened course viable.
Snow fell on just one day in February, making the total snowfall just 1.8 inches for the month. Anchorage had the fourth warmest February on record this year. This season, Anchorage has only picked up 27.6 inches of snow compared to a seasonal average of 60 inches, according to CBS affiliate KTVA.
What the hell, climate change?
2015 was the second-warmest year on record in Alaska.
Photo by tpsdave/Pixabay.
The warmest? 2014. This January was the fifth warmest ever for the state.
Unsurprisingly, lack of snow has caused problems — minor and major — for the last three Iditarods, including forced route changes and even injuries to participants in the race.
The mushers have been adjusting to warmer conditions for more than a decade, but it's getting more and more difficult to run the race the traditional way every year.
This is seriously, 100% it. We've had enough of your BS, climate change. We're taking the Iditarod — and the rest of the planet — back.
Photo by Jim Watson/Getty Images.
How?
At the end of last year, 195 countries signed the most significant climate agreement in Earth's history. It commits the signatories to doing everything in their power to reduce emissions in order to keep average global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius.
Problem is, those commitments are voluntary. The wrong politician comes to power in the wrong country, and the whole thing could blow up.
So here's what we have to do: Vote for politicians who not only believe that climate change is real but want to do something about it.
Here's a list of where each of the current crop of U.S. presidential candidates stand (including those who have already dropped out of the race).
If we stand up to climate change, we can Make Sled Dog Racing Great Again in no time.
Spread the word, call your congressmen, and most importantly, vote.
Let's do this thing, people. For the Iditarod.
GIF from "Snow Dogs"/Walt Disney Pictures.
Never forget: Snow guts, snow glory.



A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
Gif of baby being baptized
Woman gives toddler a bath Canva


An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.