Carbon dioxide (CO2) is well-known as being unhealthy for us humans. Exposure to CO2 can cause tiredness, headaches, difficulty breathing, and more. Experts are concerned that the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere lead to climate change. CO2 is capable of warming the planet. But the gas might actually be beneficial for trees, making them grow faster and higher.
Futurism tells us about the apparently incredible new theory that scientists bring. The more the levels of carbon dioxide increase, the trees seem to grow more as well.
Brent Sohngen from the Ohio State University, where he teaches environmental and resource economics, and who’s also a co-author of the study, explained:
Forests are taking carbon out of the atmosphere at a rate of about 13 percent of our gross emissions,
While we’re putting billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, we’re actually taking much of it out just by letting our forests grow.
Carbon fertilization is the phenomenon that the increase of carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere raises the rate of photosynthesis in plants.
Brent Sohngen also explained:
Carbon fertilization certainly makes it cheaper to plant trees, avoid deforestation, or do other activities related to trying to enhance the carbon sink in forests,
We should be planting more trees and preserving older ones, because at the end of the day they’re probably our best bet for mitigating climate change.
NASA estimates that in less than 200 years, human activities have increased the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 50%.
The new study was published in Nature Communications.
