Climate change will worsen pollen season, new study finds
Pollen levels could triple in some places as the world warms, and allergy season will start more than a month earlier and be far more intense, new research shows. Pollen season in the U.S. used to start around St. Patrick’s Day, but now often starts around Valentine’s Day as a warming climate prompts plants to bloom earlier and keeps them blooming later, releasing more pollen. Increased levels of carbon dioxide pollution from burning fossil fuels also helps plants produce more pollen, study co-author and University of Michigan professor Allison Steiner told ABC News. By the end of the century, pollen season could begin as much as 40 days earlier than it has in recent decades and annual pollen counts could climb by up to 250 percent.
(ABC, CNN, NBC, Climate Signals background: Season Creep)
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