Are there any climate changes that can benefit both people and the environment?
Terigi Ciccone April 16, 2024
Look at Figure-1 and see what the media/press, politicians, NASA, and the United Nations Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC) tell us daily. They tell us to look at the red line representing temperatures and see how it increased over the years and accelerated since the 1970s. By 2023, temperatures increase by about 1.3 degrees C. Then they point to the blue line and show us how that matches the rise in atmospheric CO2 from about 280 parts per million (ppm) and by the end of 2023 reached about 420 ppm. Then they tell us that humans caused the CO2 increase by burning fossil fuels, and the CO2 keeps accumulating in the air and will cause a runaway global warming extinction unless we get to net-zero CO2 emissions by 2035, 2050, or 2100.
We are always presented with many other charts showing how human-caused CO2 emissions accumulate in the air and remain there for a century or more. They use computer models predicting temperature increases by 2100 degrees C, 2, 3, and 4 degrees C. However, they never told us what happens to the increase in CO2. So, look at Figure-2 and see a refreshing chart showing how Nature uses this added CO2. On the vertical scale, it measures how much CO2 is consumed per year in gigatons (Gt) by plants for photosynthesis to produce plant sugars. These
plant sugars first feed the plants, thereby also feeding all animal life on earth and in the seas. If CO2 reaches below 150ppm, all life on Earth ends permanently. So, let’s take a close look at Figure-2[i] .
The dark green shows the increase in CO2 consumed by plants in Gigatons per year. So, from 1900 to about 2020, plants consumed about 30 % more CO2 than in 1900. This immediately tells us that plants were in starvation mode in 1900.
The light green area shows that more plants were growing as measured by the leaf area. Together, the green areas show not only are plants growing bigger and faster but also more plentiful.
The tan areas show the number of plants growing in extended areas, such as extended northern farming-growing areas in Canada, Northern Europe, and Siberia. The increased warming of the Earth by 1.3 C has extended northward during the growing season allowing more plants to grow and ripen to maturity.
Look at Figure-3[ii] for another benefit of higher temperature and higher atmospheric CO2. The vertical axis measures the speed with which plant photosynthesis occurs per second. On the horizontal axis is the leaf temperature.
Plants growing in CO2-enriched air prefer warmer temperatures.[iii] The black line shows how photosynthesis speeds up with increased leaf temperatures and normal CO2 air levels. The speed of photosynthesis reaches an optimum temperature of about 28 C and ends at about 37 C. The blue line shows a doubling of the atmospheric CO2. Here we see a marked increase across all temperatures but a dramatic upward preference for higher temperatures. This increase in CO2 has cut the speed of photosynthesis by more than half. Why is this important? The article, How Climate Change Will Affect Plants, explains it in detail, but here’s a short summary.
If you look under the leaf, you will see small holes called stomata. The image shows the open stomata of a Fir tree needle. These stomata open up to let the plant take in CO2
for photosynthesis. But here’s the rub: for every molecule of CO2 that gets in to support photosynthesis, 20 molecules of water exit the plant. However, by doubling the atmospheric CO2 cuts in half the time, these stomata have to stay open. And that cuts in half the amount of water lost by plants. Depending on the plant type and growing conditions, a plant can thrive with 30% to 70% less water. We see a dramatic example of the vast greening of the southern Sahara desert, the Sahel.[iv] There, we see how farms and villages returned to these barren desert areas thanks to the increased CO2 and warmer temperatures of the past 100 years.
This brief article aims to demonstrate how the UN IPCC, NASA-NOAA, the media, the press, and politicians have often misled the public. It's important for you, as a reader, to understand that nature is showing us worldwide the many benefits of higher levels of CO2 and slightly increased temperatures. Your understanding and awareness of these benefits are crucial in shaping the public discourse on climate change.
[i] https://images.theconversation.com/files/314179/original/file-20200207-275331akrxgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2
[ii]
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2451/2393/files/photosynthesis_and_co2_480x48 0.png?v=1663969954
[iii] https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2022/01/27/how-climate-change-will-affectplants/
[iv] The Greening of the Sahel https://www.thegwpf.org/images/stories/gwpfreports/mueller-sahel.pdf