If you’ve been feeling extra stuffy and sneezy lately due to pollen allergies, you’re not alone. Pollen seasons have been lengthening for years in many parts of the world, including the United States. While there could be a variety of factors behind this trend, climate change is one of the biggest culprits. Unfortunately, things are only expected to get worse from now on.
Different types of pollen from plants and trees are popular at different times of the year. But in much of the United States, the incidence of allergy-causing pollen is highest in the spring, and over time, spring allergies have become a significantly bigger nuisance for Americans.
this main driving force The increase in pollen is due to an earlier and longer spring.There are other reasons why a particular spring may arrive earlier than usual, such as Occasionally strong El Niño phenomenaBut anthropogenic climate change has played a significant role in long-term changes in spring and pollen seasons.
For example, a 2021 study found that the average pollen season in North America increased by 20 days from 1990 to 2018.It also found spring pollen totals Increase Growth of 21% in the same year. Both trends are associated with rising temperatures, and the researchers estimate that climate change is directly responsible for 50 percent of the lengthening of spring days and 8 percent of the increase in pollen counts. “Our results suggest that anthropogenic climate change has exacerbated pollen seasons over the past three decades and has had deleterious effects on respiratory health,” the team wrote in the study. Paper.
Not everything is climate change’s fault.Allergies have become common More common over time— could be due to a variety of factors, such as increased antibiotic use or greater exposure to certain environmental toxins. Some areas of the world may also not experience an increase in seasonal allergies like others, depending on how climate change affects local weather patterns.And, as mentioned earlier, other weather events such as El Niño can have large acute impacts on individual springs, including This year.
But in the United States and most of europeClimate change is expected to make pollen season even more of a nightmare in the coming years. Interestingly, the culprit may not just be a warming climate. A 2014 study established The increase in carbon dioxide itself causes the release of more pollen from Timothy grass, one of the world’s leading causes of seasonal allergies.
So if you are one of the unlucky Americans seasonal allergiesprepare for even worse allergy seasons in the coming years.
“Climate change is likely to have a greater impact on pollen season and respiratory health in the near future,” said William Anderegg, a biologist at the University of Utah and one of the authors of the 2021 study. Tell A small invention of its time.