Nature is just loaded with self-regulating cycles. Around here, snowshoe hares have about a seven-year population cycle that's tied to the lynx population; the hares are the primary food source of lynx, so when the hares' populations increase, so do the lynx populations. Eventually, there are a few too many lynx eating the hares, so the hare population crashes, then the lynx falls on hard times, and as the lynx population drops, the hares recover... lather, rinse, repeat. Now, this cycle is a lot more complex than set forth above, but you get the idea.
There are a lot of these kinds of cycles, feedback loops, and so on. Many of them have to do with the climate. And now, one new study shows us something that every first-year Biology student already knows: CO2 is good for plants.
In fact, CO2 makes the planet greener.
Plant transpiration is vital to plant growth and terrestrial ecosystems.
The rising CO2 trend over the last 30 years (1990-2020) has been the primary driver of planetary greening, or increases in Leaf Area Index (LAI).
The greening, in turn, is predominantly responsible for the widespread increase in plant transpiration over this period.
These elevated trends in greening and plant transpiration are expected to continue unabated to 2100, accelerating with the increases in emissions.
“The trend attribution analysis results show that the change in leaf area index (LAI) can explain 66.2% of the global PT trend, indicating that elevated LAI due to global greening is the dominant factor contributing to the upward trend in global PT. The elevated LAI can be largely attributed to the CO2 fertilization effect induced by elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration.”
That's a lot of science-speak for "rising CO2 levels result in increased plant growth."
Increased plant growth means plants, which are, in effect, carbon sinks, increase their takeup of CO2 and their output of O2 — oxygen. That's good for plants, good for animals, and good for the planet — all without wrecking our economy with drastic carbon-emissions measures.
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The earth's climate is subject to many, many influences. The sun's cycles, the planet's orbital cycles, the amount of trace gases in the atmosphere, vulcanism, and, yes, human activity. The climate has always changed, and always will, and the planet has this and other self-regulating cycles that have and will help to moderate things. This is another reason why we must resist the hand-wringing pols and activists who insist we need to wreck our modern, energy-dependent, technological lifestyle to address the bugaboo of anthropogenic climate change.
But here’s the larger issue, and it’s one that I’ve brought up before on this topic: hubris. Who are we to determine what the Earth’s “correct” temperature range is? This little blue-green sphere is a tad over four and a half billion years old. Through most of that time, it’s been a lot warmer than it is now. As recently as the Eocene, maybe the Oligocene, there were no polar ice caps. In the more recent interglacials, global temps were higher than now. During the Roman occupation of Britain, there were vineyards that would not survive today’s British climate.
Our oldest daughter has worked in emergency rooms for about fifteen years now. One of her Laws of the ER is this: “At a cardiac arrest, the first thing to do is to take your own pulse.” In other words, stop, take a couple of deep breaths, and think for a moment. The whole world could stand to follow this approach, not just on this issue but many others as well. The earth will take care of itself.
You can read the whole study here.
