Ecological Sustainability

383What Will Happen to Us? FAQs on Sustainability

(Sheridan and Bickford 2011). Tropical diseases, especially those with

insect vectors (e.g., malaria, sleeping sickness, plus diseases such as

elephantiasis and schistosomiasis caused by parasites), and fungal dis-

eases affecting both plants and humans will spread north and south

from equatorial regions. CO

2

-caused acidication of the oceans and

water temperature increase will decrease plankton and coral growth

in ocean ecosystems—ultimately impacting sheries. Warming Arctic

oceans are releasing methane into the atmosphere from melting meth-

ane clathrate crystals on the ocean bottom; methane is 21–23 times as

effective a GHG as is CO

2

. Warming of the Southern Ocean will con-

tribute signi