Climate Sunday: No, Additional CO2 is not Better For Plants

So, this is the fertilizer that Sen. Jim Inhofe, climate change denier, was spreading just recently:

“Counter to the doomsday predictions of climate alarmists, increasing observations suggest a much reduced and practically harmless climate response to increased amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide,” Inhofe said. “Also missing from the climate alarmists’ doomsday scenarios and well-scripted talking points are the benefits from increased carbon that has led to a greening of the planet and contributed to increased agricultural productivity.”

Oh, and one other thing.

“People do not realize that you cannot grow things without CO2,” Inhofe said. “CO2 is a fertilizer. It is something you cannot do without. No one ever talks about the benefits that people are inducing that as a fertilizer on a daily basis.”

Reducing CO2 emissions is not the same thing as eliminating CO2 in the atmosphere. All things considered, we would have to not only produce zero emissions but also figure out a way to sequester mass quantities of CO2 to do that, and if we could sequester mass quantities of Co2 reliably, we'd be in less of a fix right now. But just as human beings, who rely on oxygen for respiration, can experience oxygen poisoning, plants have a maximum tolerance for CO2 as well.

Sen. Inhofe was, a long time ago, trained as a doctor. He should be aware of these things. They aren't new. They are basic life science. Many people very charitably call him an idiot. I am starting to be of the impression that he is not an idiot, but is actually a scoundrel who thinks everyone else is an idiot. And what he is saying might sound very plausible to people who haven't had science courses in a long while, or rather hope that what he says is true. But you take a look at the Dust Bowl like conditions in California. I've written about megadrought and megaflood conditions previously. Neither condition is conducive to good crop yields. That's part of the side effects of global warming because of record CO2 emissions.

Trying to pretend all this is a good thing is simply shameless, and a giant lie. There is less green in many parts of the world. More CO2 will not help that.