Plant Growth is Booming Due to CO2 Emissions

Guest: Elliott Campbell, PhD, Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, University of CA, Merced The consequences of climate change can be confusing. Some spots around the world experience dramatic drought while others get massive snowstorms. Intense and unusual are the hallmarks of weather as the Earth’s atmosphere warms. Sometimes the changes aren’t all bad, either, at least not in the short-run. For example, a study just published in the journal Nature finds plants are thriving with the increased carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. Remember, CO2 is food for plants. The researchers found global plant production grew by 30 percent over the last 200 years, coinciding with the start of the Industrial Revolution and era of fossil-fuel burning. So, more plant production is great, because it means more food, right? Well, as with all things climate-change-related, the answer is complicated.