Important economic resources such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and water resources also may be affected. Warmer temperatures, more severe droughts and floods, and sea level rise could have a wide range of impacts. All these stresses can add to existing stresses on resources caused by other influences such as population growth, land-use changes, and pollution. Similar temperature changes have occurred in the past, but the previous changes took place over centuries or millennia instead of decades. The ability of some plants and animals to migrate and adapt appears to be much slower than the predicted rate of climate change.
Mosquitoes flourish in Louisiana.
Some can carry malaria, while others can carry Eastern equine encephalitis, which can be lethal or cause neurological damage. If conditions become warmer and wetter, mosquitoes could increase, thereby increasing the risk of transmission of these diseases. For example, the lack of a killing frost between 1990 and 1995 caused a proliferation of mosquitoes, cockroaches, and termites in Louisiana. In addition, warmer seas could contribute to the increased intensity, duration, and extent of harmful algal blooms. These blooms damage habitat and shellfish nurseries, can be toxic to humans, and can carry bacteria like those causing cholera.