I've mentioned before that I'm not a big proponent of New Year's resolutions. If one has to resolve to do something they weren't already doing, then the odds are high that they won't continue to do that thing for very long.
But on the second day of 2025, I did stumble across one light-hearted New Year's resolution I won't have any trouble keeping, as it's something I already do. At the climate change-debunking, pro-energy site "Watts Up With That?" scribe Vijay Jayaraj proposes we enter this new year by celebrating something that is increasing crop yields around the world.
In short, we should embrace and celebrate carbon dioxide, or CO2.
Scientific advancement and agricultural technology have revolutionized food production, enabling humanity to feed more readily a ballooning population. And working behind these celebrated innovations is an unacknowledged but indispensable contributor to the world’s growing food security: rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2).
The very molecule that has been wrongly branded as a doomsday gas has been contributing to increasing yields for essential crops like rice, wheat and soybeans.
Here's the thing - there are two different photosynthetic pathways that food crops use, called C3 and C4 photosynthesis. There is a third - CAM photosynthesis - which doesn't play as big a role in agriculture. C3 photosynthesis is an older process, that developed at a time when atmospheric CO2 levels were decidedly higher than now. The C4 process arose later, mostly in corn, sorghum, and sugarcane. It's a more efficient process, as one might expect, since it developed at a time of lower CO2 levels. Both types employ the Calvin cycle to produce sugars, but the C4 process uses a more efficient four-carbon-atom intermediary - thus the name, C4.
However, a great deal of human food crops utilize the older C3 process. This means that an increase in atmospheric CO2 more closely approximates the condition in which C3 photosynthesis originated. This results in increased crop yield in C3 plants. As Vijay Jayaraj writes:
Higher ambient CO2 levels allow C3 plants to photosynthesize more efficiently while losing less water. The benefits of elevated CO2 aren’t merely theoretical, as proven in field studies that have confirmed laboratory findings.
These studies, conducted in real-world conditions, show consistent yield increases across various C3 crops. Wheat yields increase by 20-30% under elevated CO2 conditions, while rice shows increases of between 15-32%. Soybeans, another crucial C3 crop, exhibit yield increases of up to 46% in some studies.
Perhaps nowhere is the CO2 effect more evident than in greenhouse cultivation. Modern greenhouse operators routinely boost productivity by elevating CO2 levels to 800-1,000 parts per million (ppm), which are well above current atmospheric levels of around 420 ppm. The results are striking: tomato yields increase by 40-50%, cucumber production rises by 30-40%, and growth of lettuce and other vegetables accelerates significantly.
There's nothing bad about that. More food is better than less food. And I would point out, as I have many times in the past, that the primary cause of hunger in the world is not a lack of production; it is due to corrupt governments causing problems with distribution, either by maliciousness or incompetence.
See Related: CO2 Is Good for Plants. A Slight Genetic Tweak Can Make It Better.
Climate Scold Claims on Nuclear v. Wind/Solar: The Math Doesn't Add Up
Now, the climate scolds, while badly exaggerating the extent and being mostly wrong on the cause, do have a nugget of truth in that the earth's climate is currently in a warming cycle. It has been, with a few dips (like the Little Ice Age) since the last major glaciation. Yes, human activities do have some impact, although not the planet-ending DOOM that climate scolds like to cry about. That warming, though, is resulting in longer growing seasons. The result here is not only increased yields due to higher CO2 but also due to higher latitudes becoming more practical farmlands - even here in Alaska.
See Related: Alaskan Summers Are Getting Warmer - Resulting in New Farms
Mr. Jayaraj concludes:
Today’s release of carbon dioxide through the combustion of coal, oil and natural gas is reversing a process that sequestered CO2 from the atmosphere millions of years and lowered to less than optimum concentrations the amount of the gas available for plant growth.
A resolution worth adopting this New Year would be to reject the coordinated demonization of CO2 by climate scaremongers and to celebrate it for what it is: the gas of life.
As I stated above, I'm not big on resolutions, New Year's or otherwise. But this isn't something I have to resolve, as it's something I've always done. And I would add that it's not a matter of belief; belief implies acceptance without, or even contradictory to, the evidence. I reject the claims of climate scolds and their condemnations of CO2 because, like Mr. Jayaraj, I understand the processes involved - like photosynthesis - and I have examined that data. And the data just doesn't support the scare-mongering. It doesn't support the elimination of our modern, technological lifestyle - and it doesn't support the infringements on our liberty.
