Paul,

It seems you have a basis regarding your comments on the "greening"
effect of CO2 on plants:

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/060413-658776-study-shows-co2-rise-is-causing-deserts-to-get-greener.htm



Tom Sash




  Rising CO2 Levels May Not Make Earth Warmer, But Is Making It Greener


Environment: Carbon dioxide concentrations in our atmosphere recently hit the 400 parts-per-million mark. So is all that CO2 scorching the planet? No. But it does seem to be making our deserts greener.

Listening to the global warming alarmists, one would think that man-made CO2 emissions are threatening the globe. But that's speculation. Let's deal in reality. And the reality, according to Australian research, is that in this era of higher carbon concentrations, plant life in dry regions has grown lush.

The greening of the deserts is due to the "fertilization effect" — the impact carbon dioxide has on plant life.

In summarizing the report, the American Geophysical Union said researchers focused on "the southwestern corner of North America, Australia's outback, the Middle East, and some parts of Africa," and "developed and applied a mathematical model to predict the extent of the carbon-dioxide fertilization effect."

The researchers used "Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer data spanning 1981—2006 and calibrated for long-term analyses of vegetation dynamics." The Australia-wide analysis indicated "that vegetation cover" had increased about 8% over the 26 years.

"Regardless of what has been driving these changes, the overall response of vegetation over the past two to three decades has resulted in an observable greening of the driest inhabited continent on Earth," says the study's abstract.

Don't jump to some conclusion that the added vegetation is due to more rain or some other variable.

"The team adjusted for the shifts caused by precipitation, air temperature, sunlight and land-use changes," LiveScience.com reports.

Of course, there's no way to say with 100% certainty that CO2 has activated the growth (though global warming alarmists believe it's 100% certain that man's carbon output has caused temperatures to rise since the industrial age began, that there can be no other explanation).

But the plant growth is there, and it has coincided with higher carbon emissions. And one of the researchers believes it will only increase.

"The effect of higher carbon dioxide levels on plant function is an important process that needs greater consideration," says Randall Donohue of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Canberra, Australia. "Even if nothing else in the climate changes as global CO2 levels rise, we will still see significant environmental changes because of the CO2 fertilization effect."

As we've said for some time, increased CO2 levels will have beneficial effects. That includes a greener Earth.