In praise of CO2

[FearlessFreep]

interesting article

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=569586

...
Until the 1980s, ecologists had no way to systematically track growth in plant matter in every corner of the Earth -- the best they could do was analyze small plots of one-tenth of a hectare or less. The notion of continuously tracking global production to discover the true state of the globe's biota was not even considered.

Then, in the 1980s, ecologists realized that satellites could track production, and enlisted NASA to collect the data. For the first time, ecologists did not need to rely on rough estimates or anecdotal evidence of the health of the ecology: They could objectively measure the land's output and soon did -- on a daily basis and down to the last kilometre.

The results surprised Steven Running of the University of Montana and Ramakrishna Nemani of NASA, scientists involved in analyzing the NASA data. They found that over a period of almost two decades, the Earth as a whole became more bountiful by a whopping 6.2%. About 25% of the Earth's vegetated landmass -- almost 110 million square kilometres -- enjoyed significant increases and only 7% showed significant declines. When the satellite data zooms in, it finds that each square metre of land, on average, now produces almost 500 grams of greenery per year.

Why the increase? Their 2004 study, and other more recent ones, point to the warming of the planet and the presence of CO2, a gas indispensable to plant life. CO2 is nature's fertilizer, bathing the biota with its life-giving nutrients. Plants take the carbon from CO2 to bulk themselves up -- carbon is the building block of life -- and release the oxygen, which along with the plants, then sustain animal life. As summarized in a report last month, released along with a petition signed by 32,000 U. S. scientists who vouched for the benefits of CO2: "Higher CO2 enables plants to grow faster and larger and to live in drier climates. Plants provide food for animals, which are thereby also enhanced. The extent and diversity of plant and animal life have both increased substantially during the past half-century."
...

 

[Empty Hands]

The problem with global warming and CO2 is not that plants won't grow. The problem is the massive dislocation as some areas, some with millions of people living there, will become uninhabitable or uncultivatable, and many local species - mostly animal, will die out as they can't adapt. I'm sure northern Siberia will become a much more welcoming place to live and grow wheat - but no one lives there now. It's easy to say that these things will work out in time, but many people will die or undergo a lot of trauma before that happens. Why not avoid the trouble?

 

[Sukerkin]

The growth response to higher CO2 concentrations has been know for a very long time (I learned it in Biology at school !) so I'm guessing that the real thrust of the story is to do with the ability to monitor growth through satellite imaging these days.

There is a downside to the growing concentration of CO2, sadly ... the climate changes and harms the general environmental growing conditions in some areas ... whaddyamean everybody knows that already Sukerkin :lol:.

 

[exile]

One thing that the enrichment of atmospheric CO2 has brought about is an explosive increase in both toxicity and growth rates of certain poisonous plants, such as poison ivy and oak. The problem is that not all plants are engineered to utilize CO2 to the same degree of efficiency; poison ivy happens to be one which is hyper-responsive to increased levels of this gas. I've seen it in our neighborhood and a lot of people are reporting the same thing—phenomenal year-to-year spreading, and the material triggering the autoimmune resonse the stuff triggers (urushiol, I think it's called) prompting dramatically more violent responses in the body. There's a NAS study or two on this that I read a year back; here's some of the basic research showing the dimensions of the problem:

http://www.feedsfarm.com/article/9dc1e46281a49bec32d4b2d1dbb83dc727acf27e.html

Gardeners, beware.... :bomb: irateph3: :bomb:

 

[RandomPhantom700]

Maybe the neocons will use this article to justify greenhouse gas emissions, CO2 included. "Hey look, global warming's not a problem, it's making more trees grow! Problem solved!"

 

[Big Don]

Maybe the neocons will use this article to justify greenhouse gas emissions, CO2 included. "Hey look, global warming's not a problem, it's making more trees grow! Problem solved!"

Do your part to stop the spread of CO2, don't exhale, ever.

 

[Archangel M]

Trees cause more pollution than automobiles.

Well not really, but theres a bit o truth there....

Last year, the Canadian government commissioned a study to determine the quantity of carbon sequestered by the country's woodlands, which account for a tenth of global forests. It hoped to use the CO2-gathering power of 583 million acres of woods to offset its Kyoto Protocol-mandated responsibility to cut greenhouse gas emissions. No such luck. The report found that during many years, Canadian forests actually give up more carbon from decomposing wood than they lock down in new growth.

DOH!!!

 

[Big Don]

Water, that is water vapor is a "greenhouse gas".
Gee, one thing we cannot live without and one thing we can't live without giving out, I guess we should just lie down and die.