Slashdot Mirror
Rise In CO2 Has 'Greened Planet Earth' (bbc.com)
schwit1 quotes a report from BBC: Carbon dioxide emissions from industrial society have driven a huge growth in trees and other plants. A new study says that if the extra green leaves prompted by rising CO2 levels were laid in a carpet, it would cover twice the continental USA. Climate skeptics argue the findings show that the extra CO2 is actually benefiting the planet. But the researchers say the fertilization effect diminishes over time. They warn the positives of CO2 are likely to be outweighed by the negatives. The lead author, Professor Ranga Myneni from Boston University, told BBC News the extra tree growth would not compensate for global warming, rising sea levels, melting glaciers, ocean acidification, the loss of Arctic sea ice, and the prediction of more severe tropical storms. The new study is published in the journal Nature Climate Change by a team of 32 authors from 24 institutions in eight countries. A new study has also shown that ever since Americans first heard the term global warming in the 1970's, the weather has actually improved for most people living in the U.S. The study published in the journal Nature found that 80% of the U.S. population lives in counties experiencing more pleasant weather than they did four decades ago.
This is almost a dupe of an earlier story about CO2 making plants more efficient with the same amount of water. It's not, but damn close. It sure seems like Slashdot is being spammed with a lot of climate stories lately.
Predictably, anyone who questions if humans are causing global warming will be modded down to -1. There seems to be about a 50/50 split in the comments between those who believe AGW and those who do not. However, the moderation is disproportionate, with AGW believers being modded up and AGW questioners being modded down. It sure seems like anyone who questions AGW is actively censored, regardless of the actual quality of their posts.