The Telegraph ran a bizarre article last week, claiming that the “the scariest thing about global warming” is “giant, super-fast spiders“:

“Forget floods, droughts, sea-level rise and even the melting polar ice caps. Here’s a really compelling reason to worry about global warming. Spiders. Research has already suggested that there will be more of them – and they will grow bigger – as temperatures rise.“

The source of the Telegraph’s scoop? A study where some researchers heated up tarantulas to see what happened – they ran around a bit faster and fell over a lot.

Gaia imagines they’d get similar results with cats, or low paid online churnalists…