Seasonal pollen allergy attacks used to be a malady I only observed in other people, until a few years ago. While most people get allergies when young, it’s not uncommon to acquire sensitivity in your 40s, 50s or 60s, as I have. Altogether, a significant proportion of the world population is affected, up to 30%, and it’s not just an inconvenience. In the U.S. alone, we spend approximately $17 billion/year, make 16 million doctor visits and lose 6 million school/work days due to allergic rhinitis attacks. For people with asthma, allergies can even be fatal. The stuffy sinuses, fatigue, overall wooziness, headache, scratchy throat and eyes I’ve been feeling lately has got me thinking about seasonal allergies, and doing some reading. I’ve discovered that one of the many consequences of anthropogenic climate change has been an increase in seasonal allergies.
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Pollen allergies follow the seasons, with trees in spring, grasses in summer and weeds in fall. So far, my biggest problem is with trees. Here’s what’s happening in the Pacific Northwest.
Red Alders are the most common deciduous tree in the Pacific Northwest. Right now alders are loaded with catkins like the ones in the top photo. Each catkin has hundreds of male flowers which produce pollen when ripe, and there are thousands of catkins on each tree. Wind will blow the tiny pollen grains to female flowers, the small cone-like structures. Alders delay leafing out until after the pollen is dispersed, so the grains have a free pathway to other trees, unblocked by foliage. When the catkins are ripe, alders take on a pink hue from a distance.
Those countless pollen grains waft around in the air and anyone sensitive to them can’t help breathing them in. Allergy symptoms are a response by our body to foreign substances:
Common allergic reactions such as hay fever are linked to an antibody produced by the body called immunoglobulin E (IgE). Each IgE antibody can be very specific, reacting against certain pollens and other allergens. In other words, a person can be allergic to one type of pollen but not another. When a susceptible person is exposed to an allergen, the body starts producing a large quantity of similar IgE antibodies. The next exposure to the same allergen may result in an allergic reaction.
- Johns Hopkins Medicine
Trees and other allergen-producing vegetation like grasses and ragweed bloom at particular times in the year, responding to optimal seasonal conditions. As global temperatures rise, spring is coming earlier which causes flowering seasons to start earlier and last longer. Plant hardiness maps have been adjusted northward in recent years to more accurately represent how plants are changing in response to increased temperatures. If that isn’t bad enough, the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide has also been shown to have a direct effect on pollen-production.
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation with the National Wildlife Federation has an informative resource with maps and specific experimentation describing some effects of increasing temperatures on seasonal allergies, such as:
- northward geographic expansion in allergenic plant ranges
- fast-growing plants aka “weeds” (such as ragweed) grow faster and produce more pollen with increased atmospheric carbon dioxide
- spring arriving earlier (~ 2 weeks over the past 2 decades) means an earlier and longer allergy season
- some invasive allergenic plants are better adapted to a warmer climate
In other words, Global Warming is making allergy season longer, more intense and spreading into regions that didn’t used to be a problem. The CDC is already reporting a measurable increase in asthma cases they are suggesting may be linked to the worsening allergen climate conditions since 2001. There are many reports, like this one from Scientific American, detailing worsening allergy problems caused by climate change, and not just seasonal pollen allergies.
In the Northwest, right now in March I have alders causing me misery. When the alders are done, willows start spreading pollen in April...
...and then the pines will explode in May. Our local Shore Pine is ubiquitous and generates so much pollen it coats the ground and every other surface. Car windows become opaque. Water surfaces turn yellow. Pine pollen is the worst for me.
I have to wonder if my new pollen allergies might be due to an increase in pollen floating around in the air I breathe. I’ve lived in the Northwest most of my life and never had allergies before . Are trees maturing pollen earlier than before, and further into the year? Are trees producing more pollen than they used to? No matter what, my allergic reactions will certainly will not get any better, as these trees have longer and more intense pollen seasons.
The Pacific Northwest isn’t the only region dealing with seasonal allergies right now. News reports such as this one are reporting an earlier pollen season than usual in the Eastern U.S. this year due to unusually warm temperatures. This warmer spring is a taste of the “new normal” as global temperatures rise. According to this forecast map, much of the southern United States is at high risk for allergy reactions right now.
How’s the pollen season where you live? Have you noticed any changes in allergies in your neighborhood? Have you developed seasonal allergies in recent years?
And as always at the Bucket, time for you to share what you’re seeing in your natural neighborhood . . .
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P.S. If you thought you saw this Bucket briefly yesterday, you’re right. I made a mistake in scheduling and posted it on top of an already-published Bucket, so I pulled it and rescheduled for today. My apologies!