Regional and seasonal variation in airborne grass pollen levels between cities of Australia and New Zealand.

Although grass pollen is widely regarded as the major outdoor aeroallergen source in Australia and New Zealand (NZ), no assemblage of airborne pollen data for the region has been previously compiled. Grass pollen count data collected at 14 urban sites in Australia and NZ over periods ranging from 1 to 17 years were acquired, assembled and compared, revealing considerable spatiotemporal variability. Although direct comparison between these data is problematic due to methodological differences between monitoring sites, the following patterns are apparent. Grass pollen seasons tended to have more than one peak from tropics to latitudes of 37°S and single peaks at sites south of this latitude. A longer grass pollen season was therefore found at sites below 37°S, driven by later seasonal end dates for grass growth and flowering. Daily pollen counts increased with latitude; subtropical regions had seasons of both high intensity and long duration. At higher latitude sites, the single springtime grass pollen peak is potentially due to a cooler growing season and a predominance of pollen from C3 grasses. The multiple peaks at lower latitude sites may be due to a warmer season and the predominance of pollen from C4 grasses. Prevalence and duration of seasonal allergies may reflect the differing pollen seasons across Australia and NZ. It must be emphasized that these findings are tentative due to limitations in the available data, reinforcing the need to implement standardized pollen-monitoring methods across Australasia. Furthermore, spatiotemporal differences in grass pollen counts indicate that local, current, standardized pollen monitoring would assist with the management of pollen allergen exposure for patients at risk of allergic rhinitis and asthma

Do energy use and economic policy uncertainty affect CO2 emissions in China? Empirical evidence from the dynamic ARDL simulation approach

Global warming is currently the biggest problem. China is the world's highest CO2 emitter. The Chinese authorities agreed to overcome global pollution per the current Paris treaty and has showed deep concern regarding global warming. Hence, policymakers are paying attention to economic policy uncertainty. Motivated by this issue, the study examines the effect of energy use, economic policy uncertainty, and economic growth on China's CO2 emissions from 1970 to 2018 by employing a novel dynamic ARDL simulation model. The findings show that energy use and economic growth have statistically substantial long-run and short-run positive effects on CO2 emissions. However, economic policy uncertainty has an insignificant effect on CO2 emissions, due to firms’ sustainability policies. Energy use can have valuable policy consequences, particularly for environmental sustainability. Therefore, based on the empirical findings, the crucial partnership and feedback on China's carbon emission policy should be carried forward