The real 'greenhouse effect'

The world has become a greener place in the past two decades as a result of climate change, according to a major study published today.

As the climate has warmed, the Earth has become more lush and rich with vegetation, notably in the Amazon rainforests, according to a study jointly funded by the US space agency Nasa and the US Department of Energy.

The research, published today in the journal Science, describes how global warming has allowed plants to flourish where climatic conditions previously limited growth.

In general, where temperatures restricted plant growth, it became warmer; where sunlight was needed, clouds dissipated; and where it was too dry, it rained more.

In the Amazon, plant growth was limited by sun-blocking cloud cover, but the skies have become less cloudy. In India, where a billion people depend on rain, the monsoon was more dependable in the 1990s than in the 1980s.

"Our study proposes climatic changes as the leading cause for the increases in plant growth over the last two decades, with lesser contribution from carbon dioxide fertilisation and forest regrowth," said Dr Ramakrishna Nemani, the study's lead author from the University of Montana, Missoula.

The data suggest that environmentalists may have overstated the impact of the destruction of forests. "The role of deforestation may have been overplayed a bit," he told The Telegraph. However, he added: "The role of deforestation is a difficult one for us to address in this study.

"What our study shows is that the intact forests have been taking advantage of the favourable conditions. In this context, it is all the more important to protect the intact forests. I believe ultimately what people may do to these forests is a lot more important than what climate can do."

The past two decades have been the warmest recorded, but whether this is due to long-term trends - the greenhouse effect - or short-term trends is unclear: there were three intense El Nino events, in 1982-83, 1987-88 and 1997-98; changes in tropical cloudiness and monsoon dynamics; and an almost 10 per cent rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Earlier studies of the impact on plants at Boston University and Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre, which contributed to the new work, reported increased growing seasons and more wood growth in northern, high-latitude forests.

Although the greening of the globe sounds like good news, co-author Dr Charles Keeling, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, said the 36 per cent increase in global population, from 4.45 billion in 1980 to 6.08 billion in 2000, overshadowed the benefits that might have come from increases in plant growth.

This article calls me to think about something, since the "Greenhouse Effect" and "Global Warming" are such pet Liberal causes. If we take the various liberal causes and (theoretically) allowed them unfettered control over the next 100 years, what would the world look like in 2100?

Its always something..first too hot, now to damn many humans. Maybe an Auschwitz Protocol to reduce the population and save the word. The socialists tried this once before.

Gloom and doom, baby, that's all they know. You can always tell who grew up watching original 'Star Trek', we're the optimists.

4 posted on 06/05/2003 6:36:57 PM PDT by somemoreequalthanothers (Tax cuts are voluntary....give YOURS back! I'll keep mine......)

This is funny. "We were wrong. Climate change grows the forests bigger! So its even mroe important to protect forests than before!"

Makes no sense. I wonder what added CO2 has done to ocean plant life? Water plants are like rodents and insects. Not as good fundraisers for the enviromentalists as rainforest trees and cute lion cubs.

"If we take the various liberal causes and (theoretically) allowed them unfettered control over the next 100 years, what would the world look like in 2100?"

That's easy---Stalinist-era Soviet Union (which was and is their real target).

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