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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Study: Pollution helps plants absorb C02 |
| 2009-04-23 |
| That sound you heard was the greenies' heads exploding.... Plants absorbed carbon dioxide more efficiently under polluted skies than they would have done in a cleaner atmosphere, according to new findings published this week in Nature magazine. So we need to pollute more, right? I drive a Buick so I'm helping out ... The results of the study have important implications for efforts to combat future climate change which are likely to take place alongside attempts to lower air pollution levels. The research team included scientists from the Center for Ecology & Hydrology, the Met Office Hadley Centre, ETH Zurich and the University of Exeter. "Surprisingly, It's surprising only because humans really don't understand the earth and its atmosphere on a large scale; they just pretend they do. the effects of atmospheric pollution seem to have enhanced global plant productivity by as much as a quarter from 1960 to 1999. This resulted in a net 10 percent increase in the amount of carbon stored by the land once other effects were taken into account," said lead author Dr Lina Mercado, from the Center for Ecology & Hydrology in a press statement. Reductions in sunlight reduce photosynthesis, but clouds and atmospheric particles scatter sunlight, meaning plants are then able to convert more of the available sunlight into growth because fewer leaves are in the shade. "As we continue to clean up the air in the lower atmosphere, which we must do for the sake of human health, the challenge of avoiding dangerous climate change through reductions in CO2 emissions will be even harder," said co-author Professor Peter Cox of the University of Exeter in a press statement. Under an environmentally friendly scenario in which sulphate aerosols decline rapidly in the 21st century, the researchers found that by cleaning up the atmosphere, even steeper cuts in global CO2 emissions would be required to stabilize carbon dioxide concentrations below 450 parts per million by volume. "Different climate changing pollutants have very different direct effects on plants, and these need to be taken into account if we are to make good decisions about how to deal with climate change," said Cox. You want a good decision. Mr. Cox? Leave the climate the hell alone. You can't do anything about it anyway - though you and your leftie politicians can use it as am excuse to impoverish everyone but yourselves. |
| Posted by:Barbara Skolaut |