False, Washington Post, Climate Change Will Not Cause the Rat Crisis – Watt Gets With It?

this Washington Post (WAPO) published an article claiming that global warming is responsible for increasing the rat population in major cities around the world. This is wrong. The rats have been living in the crowd and thriving. As cities develop, urban rat populations also benefit from poor waste, ineffective pest control policies and urban decline, and these hazards have nothing to do with the co-level.

Wapo's articles, “Rats are thriving in cities and climate change is helping them”blame global warming, also known as climate change, on the increase in rat populations in major cities. Gentle winters and warm temperatures are said to allow mice to reproduce more successfully, resulting in more infestations.

These claims are symbols of the lazy news genre that defines the reports of mainstream media on environmental issues. Wapo Shoehorns does not investigate the real reason behind the problems identified by the authors in climate change, and it is a simple, politically useful scapegoat.

The real culprits responsible for the increase in urban rat populations are waste, policy failure and urban decline – not climate change.

Cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles (often known as the worsening of rat problem) are dealing with fundamental urban failures that are not related to global temperatures.

1. Poor garbage management: Rats thrived on available food sources, with city streets spreading more garbage than ever before. Many cities either cut down on garbage collection services or implement “green” waste policies that unconsciously allow garbage accumulation. The rat population in New York did not explode because a small portion of the planet was exploded because the city’s population was growing and health policies did not keep pace.
2. Regulations on the protection of pests: To become more “humane”, many cities impose restrictions on rodents, making it difficult to control rat populations. For example, California prohibits certain types of rat poison, resulting in an increase in rodent infestation. Again, this has nothing to do with the climate, and has nothing to do with misleading regulations.
3. Co-locking and behavior change: Remote work, restaurant closures and the shift in human activities have destroyed the rat’s food sources, bringing it to new areas. The pandemic has a much greater impact on rat behavior than any supposed climate impact, but this major factor is not available in Wapo's narrative.

Others have pointed out that identifiable real-world factors have led to the expansion of rat population. For example, an article Climate change dispatch, Titled “Alarm Research accuses rats of surging climate change, ignoring key factors.” In fact, in many cooler times, rat populations in Europe and China flourished, and as ice packs began to grow, marking the beginning of the Little Ice Age, rats brought black rats onto the train.

The WAPO article follows a predictable climate alert script formula: Take existing problems and replace climate change with the actual causes of problems. The same template has been applied to almost every issue and has been debunked Climate Realism – Uncluttered failures, mental health, housing problems, illegal immigration, and even rat infestation. Because of climate change, the media can take responsibility for their failures. The post did not make local governments responsible for poor or ineffective waste management, but instead conveniently shifted the responsibility to Co₂ emissions.

Furthermore, the so-called connection between the warm winter and the rat population is doubtful at best. Rats have survived a wide range of climates for centuries. As pointed out in the Rat: the ultimate survivor,

It is believed to have roamed with dinosaurs, and the mice have extincted several mass extinctions, the Ice Age, the atomic bomb and the meteor. Even their bite marks 75 million years ago are now living on fossil bones.

Furthermore, the so-called connection between the warm winter and the rat population is doubtful at best. Rats have survived a wide range of climates for centuries. From frozen Moscow to tropical Bangkok, these rodents are highly adaptable. The idea that Chicago’s slightly warm winter is that the determinant of the growth of rat population is pure guesswork, just like science.

The latest attempt to link climate change to urban rat infestation is another example of the decline in WAPO's news integrity, and sadly, overall, an increasingly serious problem in mainstream media, especially when reporting on climate change. Rather than investigating the real causes of urban rodent problems (poor policy management and neglect), Wapo chose to drive climate change narratives, which actually lacked any basis. This is not just a bad report; it is intentional misleading. The public should be better than climate hysteria disguised as news.

Anthony Watts

Anthony Watts is a senior researcher in the Environment and Climate at the Heartland Institute. Watts has been in the weather business in front of and behind the camera since 1978 and currently broadcast forecasts are being made every day. He created a weather graphics demonstration system for television, professional weather instruments, and co-authored a peer-reviewed paper on climate issues. He runs the most viewed website in the world on the award-winning site wattsupwiththat.com.

Originally published in ClimateRealism

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