Fear, Itch, Fear, Itch-Don't Plants Give Off Oxygen?

Poison Ivy - Rhus radicans Image Credit: Science U

On the one hand we have Al Gore creating fear at the movies and on the other, the MSM machine creating itch in news stories about poison ivy - fear & itch ... all based on the theory of global warming. Honestly, don't growing plants give off oxygen and counteract the effects of carbon dioxide?

What are we complaining about - wear jeans and a long sleeve shirt when walking in the forest. This could be the answer to all of our problems, growing faster and bigger poison ivy for oxygen.

So, what do you think is happening over at Mount Merapi, Indonesia? Any CO2 there?

This from the AP via Yahoo! News -

Study: global warming boosts poison ivy
Associated Press - Mon May 29, 5:21 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Another reason to worry about global warming: more and itchier poison ivy. The noxious vine grows faster and bigger as carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rise, researchers report Monday.

And a CO2-driven vine also produces more of its rash-causing chemical, urushiol, conclude experiments conducted in a forest at Duke University where scientists increased carbon-dioxide levels to those expected in 2050 [estimated].

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas — a chemical that traps heat similar to the way a greenhouse does — that's considered a major contributor to global warming. Greenhouse gases have been steadily increasing in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution.

Poison ivy is common in woods around the country, making it a bane of hikers, campers, fighters of forest fires, even backyard gardeners. Its itchy, sometimes blistering rash is one of the most widely reported ailments to poison-control centers, with more than 350,000 reported cases a year.

Compared to poison ivy grown in usual atmospheric conditions, those exposed to the extra-high carbon dioxide grew about three times larger — and produced more allergenic form of urushiol, scientists from Duke and Harvard University reported.

Their study appears in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The fertilization effect of rising CO2 on poison ivy ... and the shift toward a more allergenic form of urushiol have important implications for the future health of both humans and forests," the study concludes.
Link Here>>

"Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific 'Ring of Fire', an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin. It has 76 volcanos, the largest number of any nation." (HT: IRWAN FIRDAUS, Associated Press Writer)

There has to be alot of CO2 production around this part of the Globe! Let's put in a greenhouse.

Don't ya' just love the instructive way these AP guys write? Man, I do.

UPDATE - Excerpts from Al Gore's statements made in England's Hay Festival:

This from BBC News -

Gore in Hay climate change plea
Former US vice-president Al Gore owned up to failing to get his climate change message across as a politician when he appeared at the Hay Festival. By BBC News Writer

In his first UK speech on the subject, Mr Gore promised to devote himself to the task of warning people about the impending "planetary emergency".

He appealed to the audience to act to halt the growing crisis.

"I will own up to shortcomings in my ability to communicate," said Mr Gore.
----
Mr Gore was the key note speaker of the 19th Hay Festival on the mid-Wales border.
----
But Mr Gore, fresh from an appearance at the Cannes film festival, delivered a starker message that the world was now facing a "danger which could bring the end of civilisation."
----
He was asked by a member of the Hay Festival audience to run for president again.

But Mr Gore replied: "I honestly believe that the role I can most usefully play is to try to change the minds of the American people...about what this crisis is about."
----
In a passionate speech, Mr Gore said: "We face a challenge in the conversation of democracy that we must be up to in order to save the climate balance on which our civilisation depends."
----
He said he believed scientists who said that there may be 10 years remaining to avoid "crossing the point of no return".

"Then does that change you? It should, it's happening on our watch," said the former vice-president.

He said he was "carbon neutral" himself and he tried to offset any plane flight or car journey by "purchasing verifiable reductions in CO2 elsewhere".
Read All>>

Hey Al, how does one make a Volcano "carbon neutral"? I suggest it would be about as possible as finding out the truth as to how "carbon neutral" you really are through "purchasing verifiable reductions in CO2 elsewhere".