All around me, trees and flowers seem to be flourishing exuberantly this year - more so than the past few. I have noticed it but never connected it to bad seasonal allergies that have bothered me for months. Apparently, the two are connected and we owe both to climate change.
Climate change is caused by an increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which trap and hold heat. Carbon dioxide is one of those gases, and it's released in heavy quantities due to fossil fuel extraction and burning. However, carbon dioxide also serves an important role in pollinating plants by helping them "grow bigger and faster, flower more, and produce more pollen per flower," per the Journal. With more pollen comes worse allergic reactions. Combating climate change is necessary to stop the season from continuing to stretch longer.
There is a divine logic to this in a sense. Maybe this is how the earth heals itself, producing more plants and trees to help creatures that depend on them thrive better. It helps undo the harm we are causing. Maybe we collectively deserve our allergies so we would have diminished capacity to what nature does not want us to.
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