Coughing? Sneezing? Sniffing? Sinus? Blame global warming

NVDL: So you might be saying that global warming is actually what that the doctor ordered. More swimming days, fewer winter clothes. And CO2 is good for plants, so it's NO PROBLEMO right?

Well, not quite. Seems warmer conditions are also great news for all sort of nasties, including spores, bacterias, and of course pollen. More plants in warmer cities usually means more of the invader species, like weeds. And that means more of the stuff that causes hayfever. It also means more of the sort of insect pests we'd rather do without. Flies and mosquitoes. A-chooo. Gesundheid. Tzeeeeeeeeeeee...

Asthma and other respiratory ailments are already on the rise in much of the world. The World Health Organization estimates that 300 million people globally have asthma, with 250,000 dying from the disease each year. That rate is up considerably over the past few decades, and scientists say a number of factors could be at work. One clear reason is rising levels of ragweed pollen - which can be connected directly to rising levels of CO2.

Researchers have shown repeatedly that elevated levels of CO2 stimulate weeds to produce pollen out of proportion with their growth rates - meaning you get more pollen per plant, which means more allergies. Even worse, it seems that the weediest species seem to thrive disproportionately in high CO2 environments. - Yahoo

clipped from news.yahoo.com One of the few potentially positive effects of climate change, at least in the short term, is that increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may enhance the growth plants. That could be good for agriculture - though warming temperatures and changing rain patterns in a warmer world might wipe out that advantage. But there are no unalloyed gifts from climate change. Recent research suggests that global warming will also exacerbate respiratory allergies, as higher CO2 concentrations lead to vast increases in ragweed pollen production. "There's no denying there's a change," says Paul Ratner, an immunologist with the American College of Allergies. "It's definitely bad news for people who have allergies." (Hear Ratner talk about the connection between warming and asthma on this week's Greencast.)