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Climate Central recently released some data about how climate change is extending and exacerbating allergy season, so I’m pulling this Dot from the archives:
I’ve never struggled with allergies as much as I am this year! I read somewhere that tree pollen has become more “allergenic” because of longer warm seasons caused by climate change. Is that really the case? Is more pollen all bad? Or is this good news for our pollinator friends?
– Julia
Dear Julia,
Achoo! Dot is on week three of a congested nose and sneezing and a growing conviction that this isn’t just a stubborn spring cold. So let’s first consider this part of your question: Is climate change causing tree pollen to be more “allergenic”?
In 2020, in a report titled “Exactly what do we know about tree pollen allergenicity,” the Lancet answered, essentially, ‘surprisingly little,’ arguing that more information about the impact of specific tree species is needed to determine if cities’ planting programs as a way to combat climate issues are actually a net positive or a net negative.
It is widely accepted that a warming climate is producing more pollen. As Climate Central, an independent nonprofit group of scientists and communicators, reports in Seasonal Allergies: Pollen and Mold, “North American pollen seasons became longer (by 20 days on average) and more intense (21% increase in concentrations) from 1990 to 2018. Human-caused warming accounted for about half of the shift toward earlier pollen seasons and about 8% of the increase in spring pollen concentrations during this period.” But they argue it isn’t just pollen wreaking havoc with our respiratory systems. Warmer winters mean that mold that’s surviving through our cold seasons can trigger spore allergies.
Climate change is definitely intensifying allergen production.
But do pollinators benefit while we’re congested and sneezing? Keep reading.
