[travis_brooks]

Exactly, random rivers throughout Alaska could be turning orange than eventually going back to blue for the last 10,000+ years for all we know. As the article stressed, these rivers are in the middle of nowhere so it would be hard for anybody to notice. But that story is boring, better to turn it into a menacing tale of climate change for more clicks.

[lazide]

Yup, it could also be new and a sign of an actual increasing problem!

We can’t tell from this one data point, but as you note they need the clicks.

Fear sells.

[squircle]

Fear sells indeed. We also have many more data points than were previously available. The problem, realistically, is discerning the signal in the noise and making out the meaning.