Pollen (Plant Wars, Chapter 1)

Read the Introduction here

A long, long time ago, humans were no greater threat to the well-being of nature than other animals. Even when evolution kept favoring them and pushed them towards being the dominant species, there was no reason to worry for many millennia.

That had changed. Faster than expected. The Great Consciousness hadn’t been able to react in time, as its thoughts were slow and stretched out over centuries. It had taken a great deal of time for it to realize that the humans had become a danger to every other living thing.

Many animals had already gone extinct, many places had been destroyed forever. Plastic was filling up the oceans and the overall temperature was rising. This couldn’t keep going on.

The Great Consciousness had pondered for a while what the easiest way to get rid of the humans would be. Supervulcanos? Floods? Earthquakes? All those things were much too aggressive and damaged nature even more. And was it even smart to destroy humanity completely? It had taken so much work and time to get it to its current state. Even if it was not perfect, there was still room for growth and change.

In the end, The Great Consciousness chose to use those organisms that had already served it once before in the past. The Great Oxygenation Event, the humans called it. Over two billion years ago, photosynthetic organisms had started producing so much oxygen that the atmosphere of the entire planet transformed and a new life had a chance to form.

The offspring of those organisms, the plants, were still around. They had survived the humans, had been bred by them and used as a food source. But they also posed a health risk to them.

Allergies were a funny thing. The immune system overreacting to something that is relatively harmless and in the process almost killing itself. In some cases, it wasn’t just almost.

If The Great Consciousness were to increase the occurrence of allergies and the presence of allergens, it would decimate the human population in an environment-friendly way. And the ones that survived could learn from the mistakes of their ancestors.

It was almost ironic that humanity itself made it very easy for The Great Consciousness to go through with the plan. The increase of CO2 in the atmosphere and the higher temperatures allowed plants to flourish and produce more pollen every season. It needed just a little tweak here and there to increase the allergic reaction to it.

As expected, the percentage of hay fever cases rose quickly and the reactions increased in their severity. But this was only the start. The Great Consciousness was far from done, there were so much more ways to use plants in the war against humanity. It just needed time and patience. And The Great Consciousness had more than enough of both.

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Pollen Overload: Seasonal Allergies in a Changing Climate
More CO2 = More Pollen
Great Oxygenation Event

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