Is A Plant Poisoning Our Air More Than Cars?

By on June 16, 2010 in News 8

As those of you who regularly visit this site know, the “global warming / climate change” debate is one of the most contentious issues on this site, with I have observed, equal numbers on chiming in on both sides of this issue.

Having seen the range of opinion, and paid close attention to the veracity of opinion on this particular issue with disinfo.com readers, I have been meaning to share this article I came across from the informative editor-in-chief over at io9.com, Annalee Newitz.

On face value, this article most reminds me of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening:

Annalee Newitz writes on io9.com:

The fast-growing kudzu vine may be responsible for more toxic emissions of ozone than cars. Not only are these plants releasing chemicals into the air that harm humans, but they are spreading unchecked across the Eastern US.

Research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that threats to the environment don’t always come from humans.

Read More from Annalee Newitz on io9.com

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  • Kudzu
  • Fayanora

    “Research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that threats to the environment don’t always come from humans.”

    Ah, but humans are responsible for introducing kudzu to the USA. It doesn't grow that fast in its native land, because it has things that keep it in check there, that don't exist in the USA.

  • 5by5

    Kudzu sucks to be sure, but for those of us who haven't let history drop down the memory hole, this sounds suspiciously like Ronnie Raygun's “trees cause pollution” ridiculousness from the 1980s.

    A corollary to this would be that idiot Haley Barbor who thinks oil isn't poison simply because it seeps into the ocean naturally all the time. Well, yes, it does, but not at the RATE that it's being dumped in the current oil spill (2.52 million gallons a day).

    Ultimately toxicity is a matter of aggregation. Dosage matters.

    It may be that kudzu puts out carbon dioxide by gobbling up other plant life, but it simply can't compete with the net effect of human industrial intervention. In terms of scale, we dwarf anything else, and may in fact dwarf the Earth's capacity to compensate in time for many species to adapt & survive — including our own.

    Ultimately, Earth will recover. The only real question is will we. All this stuff isn't about “saving the Earth”, it's about saving US and hundreds of other life forms.

  • justagirl

    toss some morning glories on it; choke it out. have a vine war.

    • justagirl

      i decided to have one. i made a place for the war today. there are ivy in the war zone and i plan to pour some morning glories at the base of the trellis (a buried one i found that i had to whack from the wheeds (ahem – ivy lol) in “my” back yard.) the ivy stay green all winter long, climb trees and other menacing things. they are resiliant. if they are as old as the house i can only imagine they are… very old. the morning glories could take many years to get mature.

  • Hamsanath437

    Who cares about who is responsible! They should be taken care of.

  • Hamsanath437

    Who cares about who is responsible! They should be taken care of.

  • justagirl

    i decided to have one. i made a place for the war today. there are ivy in the war zone and i plan to pour some morning glories at the base of the trellis (a buried one i found that i had to whack from the wheeds (ahem – ivy lol) in “my” back yard.) the ivy stay green all winter long, climb trees and other menacing things. they are resiliant. if they are as old as the house i can only imagine they are… very old. the morning glories could take many years to get mature.