Climate Postcards: Climate Change Makes Me Sick!
Climate Postcards: Allergies
Spread the knowledge! Please feel free to share, re-post and print our e-cards. Click the images for larger, printable versions.
Below, you will find detailed information, resources, and opportunities to take climate-protective action.
How does climate change impact my allergies?
- Warming temperatures lead to an earlier flowering time and an extended allergy season. This prolongs the suffering of people with seasonal nasal allergies.
- Higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere not only increase climate change, they also alter the growth process of certain plants, especially those which are most allergenic
- Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are emitted when fossil fuels are burned. Besides harming the lungs directly, NOx are part of the formation of ground-level ozone.
- Ozone and NOx both contribute to chemical modifications in allergenic proteins, making pollens more potent.
- Nearly 30% of people worldwide suffer from seasonal nasal allergies.
How can I help fight climate change?
- Use our postcards to query your federal, state or local government representatives: What are they doing to protect your community from the dangers to health posed by climate change?
- Climate change is accelerated by burning fossil fuels. In order to slow climate change and protect air quality, we must replace fossil fuels with renewable energy and energy efficiency.
- Join PSR’s Activist List
- Spread the knowledge by sharing our postcards!
Resources
- American Chemical Society (2015, March 22). Air pollutants could boost potency of common airborne allergens. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2016
- George Mason University (2016, March 23). How Medical Associations Can Engage Policymakers on their State Clean Power Plans. Center for Climate Change Communication
- NASA (2008, June 15). Global Climate Change: Evidence. Retrieved January 14, 2015
- U.S. Global Change Research Program (2016, April 4.) The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment
- This government study documents “what we know about the impacts of climate change on public health, and the confidence with which we know it.” It examines a broad range of health impacts as they affect the health of the American people, not just in the future but right now.
