Spring is turning to summer, which means global warming is once again creating beneficial growing conditions and putting farmers on pace for another year of record or near-record crop yields (see https://www.fb.org/market-intel/u.s.-corn-condition). Hoping to divert attention away from this good news, global warming alarmists are attempting to turn the narrative into a discussion about global warming and allergies. The tactic is shameful.

For example, Fox News (of all sources!) published an article this week by alarmist Seth Borenstein claiming, “Allergies have gotten worse with longer growing seasons and more potent pollen. High ragweed pollen days have increased….” (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/06/19/not-just-heat-climate-change-signs-can-be-seen-all-around.html) Fox News is not alone promoting this narrative; a Google news search for “global warming” and “allergies” reveals dozens of articles on the same topic published during the past week alone.

Pollen is essentially plant seed. Pollen increases in intensity and length of distribution season in a manner that is directly correlated with increases in plant vitality and growing seasons. In other words, a climate that is conducive to plant health will also be conducive to more pollen. A climate in which there is less pollen is a climate where plants find it more difficult to thrive and survive.

As the earth has warmed in recent decades, plant life has prospered. Scientists have documented longer growing seasons, higher crop output, and an overall greening of the earth. These are all very welcome developments. Rather than acknowledge such benefits, the biased media look for any tangential negative side effect to the overall beneficial trend. Pointing out that favorable conditions for crops and plant life happen to mean plants are producing more pollen is the alarmist tactic for turning fantastic news about plant vitality into yet another overblown global warming crisis.

When it comes to global warming and allergies, the choice is simple: would we rather have a world where (a) plants struggle to survive and reproduce, crop yields shrink, growing seasons shorten, the earth becomes browner with less plant life, resulting in plants unable to produce much pollen, or (b) plants readily survive and thrive, crop yields set records nearly every year, and the earth becomes substantially greener, albeit with plants producing more pollen because they are doing so well. The alarmists choose (a), while climate realists choose (b). We suspect most Americans would also choose (b).