The consequences of climate change stretch beyond deep freezes. In South Korea, warmer temperatures have already begun to lengthen tick and mosquito season, causing the number of infectious diseases to rise by more than 20,000 cases from 2012 to 2013, according to a report from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in The Korea Herald.

This finding reinforces a belief long held by epidemiologists and climatologists – that climate change will dramatically increase the prevalence of vector-borne disease across the globe.

In 2013, 77,215 Koreans were diagnosed with an infectious disease, compared to 51,520 in 2012. The Korea CDC specifically cited a spike in the cases of scrub typhus, an illness that causes fever, headaches, rashes and scabbing, as one example for the increase.

‘The Korean Peninsula’s climate is turning subtropical and more people are coming in and out of the country,” Kim Woo-joo, professor of infectious disease at the Korea University Guro Hospital, told The Korea Herald. ‘We have to take steps to prevent new diseases from spreading in the country.”

In addition to warming temperatures, researchers said that many Koreans are traveling to rural areas where more insects might live. These areas could also be responsible for the spread of […]