"Scientists are warning that rising temperatures caused by climate change will turn cities worldwide into ideal rat breeding grounds.
Several U.S. cities including New York, Chicago, and Boston pump millions of dollars each year into their respective battles against a rat population explosion. But scientists predict that a global warming of "2 degrees" Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, will occur across the globe by the end of this century. This increase of warmer winters and hotter summers provides the most fertile breeding ground for rats to reproduce at staggering rates.
Bobby Corrigan, a "rat czar" from Cornell University, explained to several news outlets last year that the rodents have a gestation period of 14 days. And as Bloomberg noted this week, rat babies can start reproducing after just one month of life, meaning one pregnant rat can lead to 15,000 to 18,000 new rats in under one year."