What black mold and climate change have in common

Allergy season is getting worse. [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a toxic stew of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [Allergy season](? Please call the nurse. - [Wildfire smoke](? It’s getting worse. - [Index funds](? Good for your purse. - [Dollar is king](? That might be a curse. The World Is One Big Fixer-Upper One of the more non-traditional ways to achieve wealth and fame goes like this: - Step 1: [Buy]( a [weird](, old house. The more decrepit the better. - Step 2: Use TikTok or YouTube to track your renovation journey. - Step 3: Instead of hiring contractors, do it all yourself. - Step 4: Post videos until one goes viral. - Step 5: Hit [one million]( followers and make $$$$. Sounds pretty sweet, right? But as with all get-rich-quick schemes, there’s a catch. You might, like, end up doing irreparable damage to your lungs: Gen Z influencers cosplaying HGTV hosts never wear masks. At least, they don’t in the beginning. Jenna Phipps, a [knitting]( YouTuber who bought an abandoned mid-century modern home, [walked through]( her Jeffrey Dahmer crime scene of a renovation wearing a lacy pilgrim collar, no mask in sight. And the woman behind [@belgravevilla]( — an account dedicated to renovating a former bishop’s house in South Wales — [certainly inhaled](black mold during her first-floor tour. Eventually a commenter tells these people that they are going to DIE before their house is finished if they don’t get it together. So they put on [protective gear]( and some Carhartt overalls and [hope]( that it’s not too late: I tell you this not because you’re getting ready to renovate, but because it mirrors how many of us are living these days. If you think these influencers are fools in way over their heads, fine. But are we any better when it comes to acknowledging the mounting ways in which climate change could impact our health? The world is our home. It grows more derelict each year, not because of black mold, but because it’s getting warmer and more polluted as I write. And it’s killing us slowly, even as we try to fix it up. Consider allergy season. When the temperatures rise, plants produce more pollen. Not only do seasons now start [20 days earlier]( than they did in 1990, there’s about 20% more pollen filling the air, largely thanks to climate change. “If you’ve sensed that your allergies are getting worse each year, it’s not your imagination,” Lisa Jarvis [writes](. In the US, a [quarter of adults]( and nearly 20% of children are impacted by allergies, a figure that’s set to grow as the world gets hotter. When the lungs are aggravated by pollen, Lisa says, “it’s downright dangerous for people with asthma: [An analysis]( of asthma patients Maryland found that very early-onset spring led to a 17% increase in hospitalizations.” And you know what worsens people’s asthma? Climate change, doh! Mark Gongloff [says]( the wildfire season in Canada is set to “start sooner and end later and potentially be more explosive” than last year. “Children, senior citizens and people with asthma and other underlying health issues can be harmed by relatively low concentrations of wildfire smoke,” he writes, but the “toxic stew of chemicals, delivered in particles small enough to enter the bloodstream” is dangerous for us all. The costs associated with climate-caused health complications are not insignificant. Sweden, for instance, [found]( that allergies cost the country of 9.5 million people upwards of 1.3 billion euros per year, thanks to treatments, doctors’ visits and hospitalizations. And in the US, wildfire fumes could cause as many as [27,800 US deaths]( per year by 2050 — an annual economic cost of $244 billion. “As long as people keep burning fossil fuels and spewing heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, the planet will warm even more and wildfires will become more frequent and intense,” Mark writes. So laugh all you want at influencers who frolic around their mold-infested mansions, but know that you are just as guilty of ignoring reality if you fail to lessen your exposure to things like pollen and wildfire smoke. In the weeks ahead, allergy sufferers will need to “lean into tried-and-true methods,” such as “keeping windows shut and showering before bed, and getting a good home air purifier,” Lisa writes. And when the wildfires arrive — and trust me, they will! — Mark says the key to staying safe is “not [rocket science](.” Wear a mask! [Do the Math]( If you owned Magnificent Seven stocks in recent years, you made a fortune. As a group, they tripled the return of the S&P 500 Index since 2015 – and the S&P was one the best performing assets anywhere during that period! But almost all of that return came from freakishly high earnings, and that level of growth is very hard — if not impossible — to maintain. So [Big Tech’s best days]( may be behind it. — Nir Kaissar Telltale Charts Nir’s prognosis of the Magnificent Seven segues perfectly into Allison Schrager’s [column]( about passive index funds. In January, the share of money in passive funds was [more than 50%]( — far more than in decades past. We know that US markets are [crushing it]( compared to the rest of the world, and maybe it’s because of AI or sky-high valuations or something rational like that. Or maybe, it’s because “passive investors just keep buying stocks no matter what the information says.” Score one for the lazy girls going all in on passive index funds! Also helping keep American index funds happy is the fact that the dollar is, in so many words, beyond jacked. But all that strength comes at a cost to the little guys: “As the US economy becomes ever more internally strong and self-obsessed, emerging-market economies are likely to suffer first and most,” Marcus Ashworth [warns](. But Clive Crook [says]( the damage won’t stop there: This week, the International Monetary Fund [predicted]( “that by the end of this decade, global growth will be around 3%, almost a full percentage point less than during the past two (already disappointing) decades.” Further Reading Free read: Are the Supreme Court’s conservatives [true textualists]( or partisan hypocrites? — Noah Feldman Republican infighting risks [torpedoing]( Ukraine aid — and paralyzing Congress. — Bloomberg’s editorial board China should step up to help [lower tensions]( between Iran and Israel. — Karishma Vaswani Chatbots could help YouTube and Facebook [combat]( conspiracy theories. — Parmy Olson Master manipulator Mitch McConnell still has [some old tricks]( up his sleeve. — Mary Ellen Klas Make no mistake: Scotland’s [pro-independence party]( still has a strong voice. — Chaminda Jayanetti What Zimbabwe needs is a new political direction, not [a new currency](. — Justice Malala The legacy of TSMC’s [outgoing chairman]( will endure for decades. — Tim Culpan ICYMI US [land conservation]( is changing. Netflix adds [a ton of new]( customers. New Mexico [finds arsenic]( in the ground. Meta adds [AI assistants]( to all of its apps. Police [arrested]( pro-Palestinian protesters. Kickers Missing your toupee? Check Uber’s [lost and found](. [Tree Paine]( is the true [mastermind]( behind [Taylor Swift](. Travis Kelce is pivoting to [game show hosting](. Beware of the bus-sized [ancient snake]( in India. [This volcano]( spews $6,000 worth of gold each day. Notes: Please send tiny specks of gold and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Threads](, [TikTok](, [Twitter](, [Instagram]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. 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