I have recently attended a lecture by a local botanist who reported studies showing rapid growth in trees with even a small increase in CO2 levels in the atmosphere. * CO2 levels around volcanoes are high enough to be toxic to plants and wildlife, but unless CO2 levels rise everywhere enough to kill all trees and wildlife--in which case it will be all over for us humans anyway--it is actually good for the plants and does not harm living creatures. *Our aspen forests from the mountains of New Mexico all the way into Canada are growing faster than ever with the marginal increase of CO2 in the atmosphere over the last 50 years.
Also aquarium managers, with both fresh and salt waters, know that adding CO2 to the water is very beneficial for aquatic plants and does not harm the fish. * Too much and both would die.
But that isn't different from many substances on Earth that are beneficial to us in reasonable amounts, and harmful and sometimes even lethal above a certain level.
All which gives credence to looking more closely at whether we need to control CO2 in the atmosphere or whether we spend our time and resources much more beneficially by learning ways to better utilize that CO2.
You may have missed this link, which has been kindly provided.
"*In nature (and in agricultural ecosystems) , plant productivity is affected by many things: light, water, temperature, nutrients, CO2, pathogensÂ…
.The experiments that show enhanced plant productivity under enriched CO2 are usually conducted under conditions that are ideal for plant growth -- i.e., temperature, water and nutrients are not limiting. In these circumstances, growth IS CO2-limited. That is, plants may respond with increased productivity to enriched CO2 if something else isn't limiting at current levels. "
ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF PREDICTED CLIMATE CHANGES
And that makes sense. Outdoors isn't an equarium.
Currently, the limiting factor in the Sierras is water.*
"SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. — In parts of California’s Sierra Nevada, marshy meadows are going dry, wildflowers are blooming earlier and glaciers are melting into ice fields.
Scientists also are predicting the optimal temperature zone for giant sequoias will rise hundreds and hundreds of feet, leaving trees at risk of dying over the next 100 years."
"SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST:Should giant sequoias be watered? Scientists ponder impacts of climate change across Sierra.
Biologists point out that the rate of climate change, due to temperature, is shifting faster than the species can adapt. Plants have little mobility and no guarantee that the shifted zone is even habitable. *Insects, birds, and other mobile creatures are forced to shift out of their habitat, of which they depend, and into habitats that are not sustainable for them. *The differential in mobility between species, in a single environment, is forced to spread out, litterally facturing the ecological interdependence.
And while CO2 can increase growth, growth is not dependent on CO2 alone. *There are limiting factors beyond simple CO2 fertilization.
Season length is changed, and plants have developed internal timing mechanisms that assure they develop in sync with their environmemt.
Lastly, and not least is that otherwise habitable areas are subject to extreme drought conditions. Other areas are subject to precipitation in excess of what the organisms have adapted to.
In short, the rate of climate change is faster than the plants amd animals are able to adapt. *On the balance, biologists have determined that the problems are greater than the benefits.
The "We shouldn't do anything" is entirely misdirected. *Climate change is because we are doing something, changing the climate. *We need to stop doing something. *
"We" don't need to look more closely. "We" already have. *And the rate of change is too fast for "We" to wait around for "you".*
And as so many deniers are so big on "we don't know for sure", the biology issue should fit very well with it. Biology is more complex than climate. *So that is definitively where the "We don't know with absolute certainty" logically leads to "Then stop changing the climate."
