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Could Global Warming Obsessed Media
Ever Consider CO2's Benefits?
Noel Sheppard
News
Busters
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
With summer looming, and the nation experiencing its first heatwave
of 2008, it certainly isn't surprising our global warming obsessed media
have resumed the spread of climate hysteria as reported
by my colleague Jeff Poor just a few hours ago.
Yet, given their willingness the past few months to discuss ethanol's
connection to higher food prices, is it too much to ask for these same
press outlets to offer a little balance by presenting the benefits of
rising carbon dioxide levels along with the mythical costs?
Take for example Lawrence Solomon's truly astounding article
published at Canada's Financial Post Saturday entitled "In Praise
of CO2" (emphasis added throughout):
Planet Earth is on a roll! GPP is way up. NPP is way up. To the surprise
of those who have been bearish on the planet, the data shows global
production has been steadily climbing to record levels, ones not seen
since these measurements began.
GPP is Gross Primary Production, a measure of the daily output of the
global biosphere -- the amount of new plant matter on land. NPP is Net
Primary Production, an annual tally of the globe's production. Biomass
is booming. The planet is the greenest it's been in decades, perhaps
in centuries.
Hadn't heard about this? Well, why would you, for the other side of the
supposedly horrific greenhouse aspect of increasing carbon dioxide levels
is how plants are just loving it:
[O]ver 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."
Interesting wouldn't you agree, and something that real journalists would
inform the public of along with the as yet unproven downside of rising
CO2 levels...assuming, of course, that real journalists hadn't gone the
way of the dodo years ago.
Maybe some more carbon dioxide will bring them back...hmmmmm.
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