Increasing carbon dioxide levels would help to make the planet greener
A while ago someone told me that he didn’t understand the science of global warming, but we should be good stewards of the land and refrain from polluting the planet. I told him that the greenhouse gas some people were most concerned about, carbon dioxide, was not really a pollutant. More carbon dioxide would only help the trees to grow better. He thought that was crazy and backwards. He thought trees are useful because they take the carbon dioxide out of the air. I did a little research and here is what I found.
1. Plants need carbon dioxide in order to grow. Without carbon dioxide plants will die.
2. The fraction of the atmosphere that is carbon dioxide is about 0.000340 (340 parts per million or ppm). Some estimates I've seen are as high as 0.00038 (380 ppm). As you can see, carbon dioxide is a very small part of the atmosphere, yet critically important to life on earth.
3. Plants in a greenhouse consume carbon dioxide, which inhibits plant growth. As a result steps are taken to increase the level of carbon dioxide in the greenhouse. Burning fossil fuels helps.
4. Increasing carbon dioxide levels improves plant growth and vigor, earlier flowering, higher fruit yields, reduced bud abortion in roses, improved stem strength, and flower size. Growers regard CO2 as a nutrient.
5. Benefits to plants increase with increasing addition of carbon dioxide in the air. At about 1000 to 1300 ppm (fraction 0.001 to 0.0013) the benefits tend to level off, and further carbon dioxide has only a small improvement to the plant. In other words any increase in the levels of carbon dioxide up to a factor of three or more over present levels only aides in the greening of the planet.
6. Tripling carbon dioxide levels would aid photosynthesis by about 50%.
7. Without adding carbon dioxide in a closed greenhouse, levels of carbon dioxide would fall to about 200 ppm, reducing plant growth by about 50%.
8. Some scientists believe that carbon dioxide levels were only around 284 ppm in 1832 (pre-industrial), and now they are at 383 ppm.
9. We breathe out air that is about 0.045 (4.5%) carbon dioxide.
10. Conservatively you should probably limit prolonged (all day) exposure to levels of carbon dioxide to less than 0.005 (0.5% or 5000 ppm).
In conclusion, we may have increased carbon dioxide levels from 284 ppm to 383 ppm during the last 175 years of industrial activity. If we increased our carbon dioxide levels to 1000 ppm, or 1300 ppm we would greatly benefit the plants on our planet. We would have to increase carbon dioxide levels many times more than that in order to reach any kind of level considered at all harmful to our health.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide and http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/00-077.htm
A while ago someone told me that he didn’t understand the science of global warming, but we should be good stewards of the land and refrain from polluting the planet. I told him that the greenhouse gas some people were most concerned about, carbon dioxide, was not really a pollutant. More carbon dioxide would only help the trees to grow better. He thought that was crazy and backwards. He thought trees are useful because they take the carbon dioxide out of the air. I did a little research and here is what I found.
1. Plants need carbon dioxide in order to grow. Without carbon dioxide plants will die.
2. The fraction of the atmosphere that is carbon dioxide is about 0.000340 (340 parts per million or ppm). Some estimates I've seen are as high as 0.00038 (380 ppm). As you can see, carbon dioxide is a very small part of the atmosphere, yet critically important to life on earth.
3. Plants in a greenhouse consume carbon dioxide, which inhibits plant growth. As a result steps are taken to increase the level of carbon dioxide in the greenhouse. Burning fossil fuels helps.
4. Increasing carbon dioxide levels improves plant growth and vigor, earlier flowering, higher fruit yields, reduced bud abortion in roses, improved stem strength, and flower size. Growers regard CO2 as a nutrient.
5. Benefits to plants increase with increasing addition of carbon dioxide in the air. At about 1000 to 1300 ppm (fraction 0.001 to 0.0013) the benefits tend to level off, and further carbon dioxide has only a small improvement to the plant. In other words any increase in the levels of carbon dioxide up to a factor of three or more over present levels only aides in the greening of the planet.
6. Tripling carbon dioxide levels would aid photosynthesis by about 50%.
7. Without adding carbon dioxide in a closed greenhouse, levels of carbon dioxide would fall to about 200 ppm, reducing plant growth by about 50%.
8. Some scientists believe that carbon dioxide levels were only around 284 ppm in 1832 (pre-industrial), and now they are at 383 ppm.
9. We breathe out air that is about 0.045 (4.5%) carbon dioxide.
10. Conservatively you should probably limit prolonged (all day) exposure to levels of carbon dioxide to less than 0.005 (0.5% or 5000 ppm).
In conclusion, we may have increased carbon dioxide levels from 284 ppm to 383 ppm during the last 175 years of industrial activity. If we increased our carbon dioxide levels to 1000 ppm, or 1300 ppm we would greatly benefit the plants on our planet. We would have to increase carbon dioxide levels many times more than that in order to reach any kind of level considered at all harmful to our health.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide and http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/00-077.htm
posted by Nectar | 2:35 PM
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