Hiking and other outdoor recreation can be an amazing past-time, and there are myriad physical and mental health benefits to spending that time outside. But as greenhouse gas emissions continue to exacerbate climate change, one pesky blight on the trail could get even worse: poison ivy.
For this edition of the Scrub Hub, in keeping with the recent trend of topics that make your squirm and scratch, we look to answer the question: Is climate change going to make poison ivy worse?There’s no beating around the bush here: Increased carbon emissions, the leading cause of climate change, will not only cause poison ivy to grow more abundant, but will also cause urushiol to become more toxic.
As more CO2 is introduced to the plant, it’s able to create more sugars, or photosynthates, allowing it to grow longer vines with more leaves. This process can also increase as the planet warms because the process of collecting CO2 is accelerated.Carbon dioxide levels in the Earth’s atmosphere hit a new record in 2021, reaching just under 415 parts per million, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Climate change is the holy ghost of the secular left