Lukewarming: The New Climate Science that Changes Everything by Patrick J. Michaels & Paul C. Knappenberger

Author:Patrick J. Michaels & Paul C. Knappenberger [Michaels, Patrick J. & Knappenberger, Paul C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Typically, a doubling of the air ’s CO2 content above present-day concentrations raises the productivity of most herbaceous plants by about one-third; this positive response occurs in plants that utilize all three of the major biochemical pathways of photosynthesis.

Figure 28

Note: Spatial trends in net primary plant productivity, 1981–2006.2

Agricultural plants shouldn’t be the sole beneficiary of the salutary effects of CO2. It is difficult to isolate CO2’s influence due to increasing genetic improvement, better agronomic practices like “no-till” agriculture, and the insertion of novel DNA into the genomes, AKA “genetic engineering.” Clearly, the “fertilization” effect of CO2 produces “difficult prediction,” namely that the planet should literally be getting greener as CO2 rises.

In 1997, Ranga Myneni and his colleagues from Boston University published the first satellite data showing a systematic greening of large portions of the planet. The satellite data were transformed into the “Normalized Vegetation Density Index,” or NDVI. Since then, this original work has been expanded and has yielded some remarkable results.3, 4

Note that there are three areas of truly remarkable semidesert greening: the western portion of monsoonal India, sub-Saharan (Sahelian) Africa, and arid southwestern Australia. Entering the search “deserts expanding global warming” will yield about 800,000 hits on Google, but what is seen in Figure 28 and in reality is the opposite.

Additionally, mid-latitude North America and Europe—especially west of the Volga River—also show substantial greening, likely a result of an observed lengthening of the growing season (the time between the last frost in the spring and the first frost in fall) in addition to CO2 fertilization. There’s also an intriguing (albeit thin) strip of sharp greening at the northernmost margin of the vegetated region of North America, a sign of salubrious change in the formerly barren subarctic.

Lukewarmers note that the primary effects of greenhouse warming and increased atmospheric CO2 are a slight warming on a greener planet.

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