Page 28 - min.vos

A28

SCIENCETuesday 26 May 2015

Study: Europeans to suffer more ragweed with global warming

SETH BORENSTEIN In this Aug. 14, 2001 file photo, pollen on a ragweed plant in is seen Newark, N.J. A new study predicted increases in
AP Science Writer says global warming will bring much more sneezing and wheezing to Europe by mid-century. the annual pollen count
WASHINGTON (AP) — of 100 to 1,100 percent,
Global warming will bring Associated Press with a general average of
much more sneezing and around 300 percent, Vau-
wheezing to Europe by es Laboratory in Yvette, can expect to see many The researchers used tard said.
mid-century, a new study France. That includes Par- more allergy sufferers,” computer simulations with Land use and the way the
says. is, where Vautard lives. said Daniel Chapman, an different scenarios of car- non-native plants take
Ragweed pollen levels “As warmer tempera- invasive species expert bon dioxide pollution for over new areas account
are likely to quadruple for tures and higher carbon at the Centre for Ecology the next 35 years. And if for about one-third of
much of Europe because dioxide concentrations and Hydrology in Edin- the world doesn’t make the increased ragweed
warmer temperatures will allow ragweed to be- burgh, Scotland. He did a large change in emis- counts, with climate
allow the plants to take come more vigorous and not take part in the study, sions from coal, oil and change the rest, Vautard
root more, and carbon invade further north, we but praised it. gas, the computer runs said.
dioxide will make them Earlier studies show that
grow more, says a study ragweed pollen season
published Monday in the in North America has al-
journal Nature Climate ready extended by as
Change. Other factors much as three weeks in
not related to man-made some northern locales,
climate change will also partly because of climate
contribute. change.
Ragweed isn’t native to U.S. Environmental Pro-
Europe, but was imported tection Agency climate
from America in the late scientist Michael Ko-
19th century. It hasn’t lian, who wasn’t part of
quite become estab- the new study, said the
lished all over the conti- French study fits with pre-
nent, at least not yet. vious research and the
Parts of France, the United U.S. National Climate As-
Kingdom and Germany sessment, which conclud-
don’t have the allergens ed “climate change, as
now, but they will by 2050, well as increased carbon
says study co-author Rob- dioxide by itself, can con-
ert Vautard, a climate tribute to increased pro-
scientist at the Climate duction of plant-based
and Environment Scienc- allergens.”q