It looks like carbon dioxide emissions are making Earth a greener planet.
“Carbon dioxide fertilizes plants, and emissions from fossil fuels have already had a hugely beneficial effect on crops, increasing yields by at least 10-15%,” concludes a new report by the UK-based Global Warming Policy Foundation, an organization primarily focused on countering policy endeavors of global warming activists.
“This has not only been good for humankind but for the natural world too, because an acre of land that is not used for crops is an acre of land that is left for nature,” writes Dr. Indur Goklany, the report’s lead author and former U.S. representative on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
“The current value of the carbon dioxide fertilisation effect on all crops is currently about $140 billion a year,” according to Goklany.
Scientists have long understood that high carbon dioxide levels help boost foliage through a process called carbon dioxide fertilization. High carbon dioxide levels cause plant life to thrive, particularly in arid regions where carbon emissions are literally causing deserts to bloom. (RELATED: NASA Warns About High CO2 Levels That Are Greening The Planet)
“While a CO2 effect on foliage response has long been speculated, until now it has been difficult to demonstrate” Randall Donohue, a scientist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, said in 2013. Elevated CO2 levels have also been shown to boost agricultural yields and even taste.
The report also discusses how and why the global climate has not been warming as rapidly as projected by climatic modeling.
Carbon dioxide emissions have been maligned in recent decades by environmentalists and some scientists who say rising levels of the greenhouse gas are causing the planet to go through catastrophic warming. Yet, carbon dioxide is also associated with an immense amount of wealth creation.
“In 1950, humans used 1,700 million metric tons of carbon per year, and the average global GDP per capita was $1,700. Today we use 9,000 million metric tons per year, and the average global GDP per capita is $9,000. That’s a fivefold increase in average global income within living human memory” wrote Dr. Robert Zubrin, founder of research and development firm Pioneer Energy.
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