More bugs. Bigger bugs. Exotic bugs. Bugs carrying diseases you’ve only heard about on the Discovery Channel. Those are just some of the unfortunate side effects of climate change that are creeping up on us.

        It turns out that just a small increase in temperature---plus the ability of warmer air to hold more moisture---makes huge swaths of the earth much more hospitable to insects. Bugs moving into these new neighborhoods bring two things with them: disease and destruction.

        The World Health Organization has identified over twenty diseases carried by “vectors” (read: bugs) that have spread into areas that previously were protected by cold weather. Malaria-infected mosquitoes now thrive at higher elevations in Africa and South America. Ticks have spread Lyme Disease to new areas like the Antarctica (I’m not making this up.) Dengue Fever, Yellow Fever, Leishmaniasis (a flesh-eating disease), and West Nile are also on the list of infectious diseases that will become more widespread as the earth’s climate changes.

        If that doesn’t make you go buy a few super-charged bug zappers, this will. Warmer temperatures also permit destructive insects that usually disappear during the winter to rampage all year long. Pine Bark Beetles will soon be able to produce more generations each year, and thus eat more Western trees per year. Some experts believe termites will also expand their reach and their appetites.