If the thought of more wildfires and rising sea levels due to climate change isn’t scary enough, a new study finds that climate change has already had an impact on the length of allergy season.
Climate scientists at the University of Michigan studied 15 different types of plant pollen in the United States and, using computer simulations, were able to calculate how much worse allergy season will likely get by the year 2100.
Scientists Bill Anderegg, a biologist and climate scientist at the University of Utah, and Dr. William Harris, an allergist at Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange, Calif., joined KNX In Depth to discuss what the data shows.
“I am quite impressed with this study," Anderegg said, "it’s a very rigorous and detailed study, and it makes a lot of sense in that we really expected that climate change is going to make allergy seasons longer and more severe."
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He explained that just last year he was part of a research team that found allergy seasons across the United States are starting about three weeks earlier than normal — something that supports what this new study has found.
It all boils down to two factors, he said, explaining that temperature does two things to plants.
“First, as temperatures warm up, plants start the pollen season earlier,” he said. “And plants do seem to grow a little bigger and produce a little more pollen on average [when it’s warmer].”
When looking ahead to potentially worsening allergy seasons, Harris said allergists will really have to anticipate the earlier start and act accordingly with medication for patients.
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“Remember," Harris warned, "they’re not just talking about the pollen season starting earlier, they’re talking about the season ending later [as well]."
As far as what we can do to prevent the projections, Anderegg said the only thing to do is incorporate the fight against climate change every day in your own life, to hopefully lessen what the projections are currently showing.
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