By Cedar Walters

West Central Initiative Climate Officer

Most of the time, it seems like climate change will affect someone else—somewhere far away. But climate change is already impacting our lives in the Midwest in many ways, including our respiratory health.

Increases in average summer temperatures have lengthened the growing season by an average of 20 days since the 1990s, leading to a corresponding lengthening of allergy season in both spring and fall. These seasonal changes have increased both the duration and intensity of allergy season, which directly affects those with allergies and asthma. This has real costs for both our health and the money we spend on treatment for seasonal allergies. The CDC estimates that more than $3 billion is spent annually on seasonal allergies, half of which is spent on prescription medications to treat symptoms.  

In addition to the longer allergy season, multiple studies, including research published in The Lancet and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have shown that pollen counts have also been increasing over the past 20 to 30 years due, at least in part, to warming temperatures. Plus, plants like ragweed also tend to flourish with higher concentrations of CO2 in the air, leading to an increase in pollen production.   

As if the worsening of allergy season wasn’t enough, other climate-related impacts tend to have an additive impact on respiratory health. Warming and increased drought conditions contribute to more wildfires and associated air-quality alerts, which further affect sensitive individuals—especially children and adults with underlying conditions. According to the American Lung Association, children, relative to their size, breathe in more air than adults and are more sensitive to pollutants such as smoke from wildfires and black carbon (soot and air particulate matter) released from burning fossil fuels. These irritants worsen other respiratory conditions like allergies and asthma.  

The 2023 Climate Change and Children’s Health and Well-Being Report from the EPA found that asthma cases in children will continue to increase between 4 percent and 11 percent under varying scenarios of increased warming and also predicts more than 6,000 additional emergency room visits each year when we reach 2°C of warming due to asthma-related impacts.   

Although some of these factors feel out of your control, there are things you can do to adapt to these changes. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has an online guide for managing your child’s asthma and allergies in a changing climate, which includes watching for air-quality alerts, using an air filter in your home or your child’s bedroom, and getting involved in efforts to reduce air pollution and climate impacts in your region. Other sources encourage parents or individuals who suffer from asthma and allergies to be proactive and meet with their providers before allergy season starts.

Carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels is harming our health right now, both from the resulting air pollution and the increase in average temperatures that are extending the allergy season. It’s time to make the switch to clean energy to protect our health and lessen future harm. The good news is the same actions you can take to reduce climate change also support your own health by improving air quality, such as walking and biking for short trips instead of driving. You can ask your local leaders what they are doing to support energy-efficiency initiatives and clean-energy development in the region—because protecting our health and the health of our children is worth it.