Climate change exacerbating pollen season

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/537912-study-climate-change-exacerbating-pollen-season

By John Bowden - 02/08/21 07:01 PM EST

Pollen season is becoming longer, earlier and more intense as a result of a changing climate, a study published Monday in a journal from the National Academy of Sciences finds.

Scientists at several universities led by William Anderegg at Rutgers examined data from pollen measurements dating between 1990 and 2018, and discovered that pollen season increased by 20 days over that time period, while the amount of pollen in the air grew by 21 percent.

"We find widespread advances and lengthening of pollen seasons (+20 d) and increases in pollen concentrations (+21%) across North America, which are strongly coupled to observed warming," reads the study's abstract. "Our results reveal that anthropogenic climate change has already exacerbated pollen seasons in the past three decades with attendant deleterious effects on respiratory health."

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https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-02/uou-yas020421.php

News Release 8-Feb-2021
Yes, allergy seasons are getting worse; blame climate change
University of Utah

If you live with seasonal allergies and feel like the pollen seasons feel longer and longer every year, you may be right. New research shows that pollen seasons start 20 days earlier, are 10 days longer, and feature 21% more pollen than in 1990--meaning more days of itchy, sneezy, drippy misery.

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 Allergies to airborne pollen can be more than just a seasonal nuisance to many. Allergies are tied to respiratory health, with implications for viral infections, emergency room visits and even children's school performance. More pollen, hanging around for a longer season, makes those impacts worse.

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The results showed that climate change alone could account for around half of the pollen season lengthening and around 8 percent of the pollen amount increasing. By splitting the study years into two periods, 1990-2003 and 2003-2018, the researchers found that the contribution of climate change to increasing pollen amounts is accelerating.

"Climate change isn't something far away and in the future. It's already here in every spring breath we take and increasing human misery," says Anderegg. "The biggest question is--are we up to the challenge of tackling it?"