Audeamus
Which Pole would you prefer?
Filed in archive Sustainable Development by mstandaert on November 27, 2006
Which Pole would you prefer?
I don't like this story very much. The fact is, I already suffer from terrible allergies. I know, I know, I should go have the shots done. I started it once, but stopped going in when I moved to Europe, where I only had problems with allergies in Denmark for a few days and Brussels for a few weeks. Never had any symptoms in the Netherlands or Wales. Why is that? Cooler? Wetter? Close to the ocean? They've not been too bad in California either, but better closer to the coast than away from it. Anyway, I've had allergies all my life to a wide al le carte of pollens. I finally went in about ten years ago and had the test taken where they do about 40 pricks on your back to test how allergic you are to certain allergens, and well, 38 out of 40 showed up as above average. Man o man. And my wife wants to get a cat? She's seriously trying to kill me.

So, back to this story. Gives me a headache and watery eyes just thinking about it. I'll have to move to the North of South Pole ...

In 2000, researchers at the USDA published the results of a study to test the effects of increased CO2 on pollen production in ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia). They exposed ragweed specimens to differing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide: 280 ppm (historical), 370 ppm (current), and 600 ppm (predicted). What they found makes me want to sneeze. Pollen production increased from 5.5 grams, to 10 grams to 20 grams respectively. According to the researchers, pollen production rose almost 400% with a 200% increase in CO2.

A study conducted by researchers at Harvard University in 2002 has produced similar results. According to the Harvard study, ragweed grown at 700 ppm CO2 produced 61 percent more pollen when compared to ragweed grown at 350 ppm.


Permalink: Which Pole would you prefer?
Tags: pollen  global  warming  social  development  social+enterprise  awards+round  audeamus+awards 
Trackback: http://publish.creative-weblogging.com/publish/mt-tb.pl/43905
img Addthis img Ask img Blinklist img del.icio.us img Digg img Fark img Facebook img Google img Lycos img Ma.gnolia Add this page to Mister Wong Mr Wong img Netscape img Netvousz img Newsvine img Reddit img StumbleUpon img Slashdot img Tailrank img Technorati img Wink img Yahoo

Vote for Which Pole would you prefer?:

  • Currently 6.00/10
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
Rating: 6.00 out of 1 vote(s) cast.
 
Subscribe
Share It
Popular posts from our other blogs:
RSSrss
See all blog subscribe options
Google google
What is RSS?
Yahoo! yahoo
Addthis Subscribe using any feed reader!
Bloglines Bloglines
Newsletter

TwitterFollow us on Twitter!