Earth Equity News

Europe Getting Allergic to Climate Change. By Julio Godoy, IPS, June 15, 2008. "Climate change induced by global warming is provoking health hardships in Europe, especially through new, prolonged allergies, authorities say. The most important new allergy affecting Europeans is being caused by ambrosia artemisiifolia, popularly known by several names, including common ragweed, annual ragweed, bitterweed, blackweed, or, more telling, hay fever weed. The plant was native to North America, but was brought to Europe several decades ago, according to German biologists and health authorities. But with the recent, steady rise in temperatures in Europe, the plant, which grows to about a meter in height, has spread in Germany, France, Hungary, Italy and other European countries. The plant's pollen is known to provoke hay fever, characterized by sneezing, runny nose, itching eyes, and even heavy attacks of asthma and conjunctivitis... The health worries caused by ambrosia are so serious that several German health agencies have approved a plan to exterminate the plant."