Plagues of Climate Change: Bugs, Beasts that may Thrive on Warming

As global levels of carbon dioxide and methane -- both greenhouse gases -- continue to rise, scientists worry that we could be approaching a tipping point at which catastrophic climate change is inevitable. Warmer, more chaotic weather doesn't mean only melting ice and rising sea levels, though. Researchers warn that a hotter Earth could lead to a spread of numerous disease, pests and other threats. What follows is a list of eight possible plagues we might see as the climate changes:

AIDS. Physician Daniel Tarantola says he fears climate change could worsen food scarcity and social stresses in already-troubled parts of the world, leaving more people vulnerable to the HIV virus that causes AIDS.

Witch hunts. No joke here. As New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof recently explained, accusations of witchcraft and murders of suspected "witches" increase in developing parts of the world during bad weather, drought and other natural troubles. Researchers have even found links between abnormal weather and witch hunts during the "Little Ice Age" in Europe and the U.S. If climate change leads to more drought, hotter temperatures and more powerful storms, people in poor parts of the world might increasingly look for scapegoats to accuse of witchcraft, Kristof speculates.

Snakes. The U.S. Geological Survey recently created maps of the U.S. showing how average temperatures might increase across the country. The greater reach of warm weather could create wider habitats for invasive species like Burmese pythons, the agency said.

Tree-killing beetles. This one's already here. Warmer average temperatures in Canada have led to a devastating outbreak of pine beetles that are destroying vast swaths of trees in British Columbia's Boreal forest. By 2020, the beetles are expected to have killed so many trees that the forests will actually begin releasing more carbon dioxide than they absorb, one recent study found.

Crop-eating insects. Like the pine beetle, other plant-hungry insects also thrive when temperatures rise. Scientists recently found that insect-related damage to plants rose considerably 55 million years ago, a time in which global carbon dioxide levels and temperatures spiked dramatically.

Poisonous spiders. This one's happened already, too: in Australia, where warm weather was blamed for an infestation of poisonous redback spiders.

Hurricanes. Scientists are still uncertain about whether climate change will mean more, stronger hurricanes, or if warmer temperatures could actually interfere with storm development. However, researchers recently identified a shift in global jet streams that might be due to climate change. Such changes could reduce upper-level wind shear that makes it harder for hurricanes to form and strengthen, they speculate.

Dust Bowls. Dust kicked up during farming in the 1930s might have aggravated a dry spell and created a feedback mechanism that led to the Dust Bowl and its resulting collapse of agriculture, one study recently found. The current push to grow more food and crops for fuel could stress already overworked soil and, coupled with warmer temperatures, set off new Dust Bowls in different parts of the planet, researchers said.