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Has Plant Life Reached Its Limits?

hessian writes with this news from the New York Times: "Since 2000, Dr. [Steven] Running and his colleagues have monitored how much plant growth covers terra firma, using two NASA satellites in the agency's Earth Observing System. After they crunched the numbers, combining the current monitoring system's data with satellite observations dating back to 1982, they noticed that terrestrial plant growth, also known as net primary production, remained relatively constant. Over the course of three decades, the observed plant growth on dry land has been about 53.6 petagrams of carbon each year, Dr. Running writes in the article. This suggests that plants' overall productivity — including the corn that humans grow and the trees people log for paper products — is changing little now, no matter how mankind tries to boost it, he said."

5 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. Has plant life reached its limits? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I think you should ask Romney directly; instead of branching out, just go for the root of the matter.

    Although honestly, I think he's more of a fungus than a plant...

  2. Re:Hmmm... by ericloewe · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hey, you have to tell us what bullshit generator you use, it actually sounds insightful to those who read the first part of the sentence.

  3. Re:Hmmm... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Funny

    All limits are political.

    And they say that postmodernism is dead...

  4. Kudzu? by rueger · · Score: 4, Funny

    Anyone who has battled kudzu will find this report rather hard to believe.

  5. Re:But are we really trying? by icebike · · Score: 3, Funny

    Trees are the default crop. Been this way since mankind was swinging from branch to branch,

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    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.