Blog Series: Climate Change and your Health
by Karen Cooper
If you’re an allergy-sufferer, grab your favorite neti pot and brace. Allergens have joined the climate change party with a vengeance. The warmer weather is facilitating the northward creep of pollen-making machines like ragweed. Ragweed is already notorious for its talents of proliferation and one plant can produce about a billion grains of pollen in a season. To add insult to injury, Ragweed has been shown to show greatly increased pollen production when more carbon dioxide is present. Ragweed is almost impossible to eradicate. The way to strike back at ragweed is to target its enabler: climate change.
Join the fight against climate change and allergies!
One way to stop climate change is to reduce the burning of fossil fuels. The fuel cars burn contribute a great deal of the pollution that cause global warming and climate change.
>> Use public transportation more (use ear
buds and relax!)
by Karen Cooper
Climate change is resulting in longer, warmer summers in the U.S. In fact, in parts of the northern U.S. and Canada you can bask in warmer weather for almost a month longer than was possible in 1995. Long summers used to be a rarer treat that could be rightfully savored. But a trend of warmer summers has sounded the alarm bells for allergy-sufferers.
If you’re an allergy-sufferer, grab your favorite neti pot and brace. Allergens have joined the climate change party with a vengeance. The warmer weather is facilitating the northward creep of pollen-making machines like ragweed. Ragweed is already notorious for its talents of proliferation and one plant can produce about a billion grains of pollen in a season. To add insult to injury, Ragweed has been shown to show greatly increased pollen production when more carbon dioxide is present. Ragweed is almost impossible to eradicate. The way to strike back at ragweed is to target its enabler: climate change. Join the fight against climate change and allergies!
One way to stop climate change is to reduce the burning of fossil fuels. The fuel cars burn contribute a great deal of the pollution that cause global warming and climate change.
Five everyday things you can do to fight climate change (take that ragweed!)
>> Use public transportation more (use ear buds and relax!)
>> Carpool
>> Ride your bike
>> Keep your car maintained to proper
standards
standards
>> Keep cleaning products and chemicals
well-sealed to prevent evaporation
well-sealed to prevent evaporation
Pollen trackers to help manage your allergies...
Check out this web site that has links to pollen trackers and widgets that will help you manage your allergies… then you can concentrate on fighting climate change! http://www.health.com/health/condition-article/0,,20292425,00.html
Check out this web site that has links to pollen trackers and widgets that will help you manage your allergies… then you can concentrate on fighting climate change! http://www.health.com/health/condition-article/0,,20292425,00.html
Sources:
http://www.epa.gov/region8/climatechange/KnowledgeBuildingSeriesClimateChangeHumanHealthAndWelfare.pdf -- Knowledge Building Series: Climate Change, Human Health and Welfare
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/ - Climate change: what you can do
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragweed - Ragweed
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-02/usdo-usc022211.php - USDA study confirms links between longer ragweed season and climate change
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