EDITORIAL: Poison Ivy Loves Greenhouse Gas

By The Modesto Bee, Calif.

Jul. 6–Excerpted from Monday’s (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Recent studies suggest that rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are promoting leafier, more prolific, faster-growing — and itchier — poison ivy than ever before. And that could be killing off more trees in the forest, and causing more itches for more of us, than ever before. Scientists think the woody vine could alter the composition of forests around the globe by choking off trees. Worst of all, this poison ivy of the future was suffused with far more potent urushiol, the oily substance that makes four out of five of us itch. Now there’s a rash of bad news.

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