Posted on 05/30/2006 1:03:10 PM PDT by billorites
Another reason to worry about global warming: more and itchier poison ivy.
The noxious vine grows faster and bigger as carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rise, researchers report Monday.
And a CO2-driven vine also produces more of its rash-causing chemical, urushiol, conclude experiments conducted in a forest at Duke University where scientists increased carbon-dioxide levels to those expected in 2050.
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, a chemical that traps heat similar to the way a greenhouse does, that is considered a major contributor to global warming. Greenhouse gases have been steadily increasing in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution.
Poison ivy is common in woods around the country, making it a bane of hikers, campers, fighters of forest fires, even backyard gardeners. Its itchy, sometimes blistering rash is one of the most widely reported ailments to poison-control centers, with more than 350,000 reported cases a year.
Compared to poison ivy grown in usual atmospheric conditions, those exposed to the extra-high carbon dioxide grew about three times larger, and produced more allergenic form of urushiol, scientists from Duke and Harvard University reported.
Their study appears in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"The fertilization effect of rising CO2 on poison ivy ... and the shift toward a more allergenic form of urushiol have important implications for the future health of both humans and forests," the study concludes, reports AP.
Another one of those times when I enjoy being a girl.
If I have poison ivy I will borrow a friends goat. In an hour there will be nothing left.
Which, in turn, produces more oxygen for people to breathe.
So it's a good-noxious-plant, bad-noxious-plant thing.
why not?
Seeds are not killed by Roundup or BrushBeGone, I believe. So you've got to get it when it sprouts early in the springtime to be effective all season.............
>I did my part Sunday - I took an axe to several poison ivy vines growing up trees around my house.
I did a serious Round-Up weed-nuking session Monday morning with the 4-gallon backpack sprayer. There's poison ivy coming through the fence at the NE corner of the lot. I may have to go to the far side of the fence and nuke the poison ivy on the west side of the neighbors' lots, next time around, to get at the source of the problem.
Most of which is released back into the atmosphere by fungi or fire (the rest stays in soil).
IMO the fertilization effect is the only real impact of increased atmospheric CO2. The consequences can be beneficial in some cases (crops grow faster), and deleterious in others. The latter case is not well understood.
Open air lab studies at the USDA predicts that pine trees grow up to 65% faster under the current 360ppm concentration than they did under the historic 290ppm concentration prior to industrialization (which is pretty close to what ring studies suggest). That's great for lumber and paper production, but it may well be bad for forests. Because increased CO2 also reduces drought stress in trees, more seedlings survive, which packs up the forest full of young, fast growing, and scraggly trees. Because the growth response to additional CO2 is non-linear, that means the system's response to singulaities is too. We have no idea what that portends for the usual humanly-induced fire cycles to which forest systems became habituated over the last 10,000 years.
I did the same last week but unfortunately I got just a little bit on me...not too bad but I'm sure it's worse because of Global Warming...-sarc
I had the bathtub filled with water waiting for me when I was done. I've learned to work quickly and then immediately soap off thoroughly to get rid of the oils - that minimizes exposure.
I grew up in upstate New York and did a ton of camping and hiking when I was a kid. Poison Ivy is a very common weed there, and I never, not one time, ever had a single reaction to it.
OTOH, if I get within a football field distance of Stinging Nettles, my whole body goes into paroxysms of pain, ready to shutdown and I'm miserable... I mean ready to jump off a bridge miserable.. for a couple days. I don't think it's an allergy, just a really bad reaction!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.