The worldwide economic breakdown crisis is reflected in a new global research project, which intensively studied rodent populations in 16 large urban areas around the world, finding an increase in rat populations in Washington by 390%, 300% in San Francisco, 186% in Toronto, and 162% in New York over the last decade. During the ten-year study, 11 of the 16 cities studied saw dramatic increases in the rodent populations. As one might expect, “global warming” has been blamed instead of the poor economic conditions being imposed on greater portions of the world population. However, a closer look suggests a “perfect storm” of several factors which may include more moderate temperatures. Other factors include increased poverty, overcrowding, reduced budgets for sanitation, a breakdown of basic urban infrastructure, and even less land for parks and open areas.