Climate change bites

We didn’t see this one coming! In addition to extreme weather events and wildfires, melting sea ice and rising ocean levels, impacted air and water quality, and myriad other oft-cited effects of climate change, we also can look forward to getting bitten by animals and insects more often. In a report published by Stanford researchers last month, rising temperatures will lead to more mosquitoes and ticks, and developmental sprawl will force increased interaction with both wild and domestic animals. This could add to the already enormous health care costs associated with animal-related injuries, which already exceed $1 billion per year in the United States. Animal bites are most common among lower-income populations and people living in rural, resource-poor settings—once again putting the ultimate costs of our climate disaster on the most vulnerable among us. You can read the full report here: tinyurl.com/Climate-Bite