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More Carbon Dioxide = More, Stronger, Poison Ivy

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.17.08
Food & Health (botanical)

poison ivy photo
Washington State

Researchers at Duke University studying poison ivy discovered that higher levels of CO2 caused the plant to grow more vigorously, but also it produced a more toxic form of urushiol, the resin that causes the rash. Ann Raver writes in the New York Times that removing it has become a growth industry.

She interviews Umar Mycka, who has started a business, Poison Ivy Horticulturalist, to kill the stuff; he uses a herbicide, applied to the stem, which is supposed to break down in 46 days. Organic farmers pull the stuff up and send it to the dump in garbage bags.

Raver concludes: Mr. Mycka would love to see Americans discover some use for the plant. “In China and Japan, they made lacquer out of their resin plants, so they understand and value it,” he said. “Whereas we just see it as that darn weed over there.” ::New York Times

Poison Ivy in TreeHugger:
Burt’s Bees – from bee keeping to natural beauty
Eco-Tip: How to Get Rid of Insects? Bats!

Comments (8)

Mmm, not good. So far I've heard about more hornets (as the warmer winters allow more hornets to survive) and more poison ivy. Man, global warming really sucks.

Aren't there any positive effects like, say, larger marijuana plants?

jump to top stradric [TypeKey Profile Page] says:

Seriously? Oh no. Bad CO2, bad. Has anybody been to the fourth grade at some point in their life? All plants breathe CO2 and create oxygen. All plants do better when there is more CO2. More CO2 equals more apples, oranges, poison ivy, trees, weeds, and the rest.

By the way, you exhale CO2. Don't support taxing CO2 (it's goes against all common sense).

jump to top James says:

Positives? as CO2 is plant food, I would expect Larger plants all the way around, including crops.
With larger wasps they can perhaps lay more eggs in more caterpilers killing more bugs so we need to use less pestacide.

jump to top Uncle Mike says:

Won't all plants grow larger with increased CO2?

jump to top Roland says:

Perhaps you've forgotten, or else never read the TH article regarding USDA findings that CO2 may create "super-weeds" that may be able to compete more aggressively against cultivated plants (you know, like corn and wheat and other nifty major edible food crops).

Here's the link:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/usda-climate-change-super-weeds.php

jump to top librlman [TypeKey Profile Page] says:

That is a terribly punctuated and worded title.

jump to top echoclerk [TypeKey Profile Page] says:

We all know that more CO2 makes almost all plants grow better and have better yields; which of course includes poison ivy. How is this news?

jump to top Traciatim says:

Hey people and there is a use efor poisen ivy. this is a guess but ive done lots of research and welll poisen ivy takes in a bit more co2 then any other plant and theres tomuchCO2 in the air so there for if scientist could get preservatories of this plant then more CO2 would go down at a faster rate ive done a terrarium expirement with it and it worked so idk mabye its true mabye not but thats science.

jump to top joe says:

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