WhatFinger


The Many Benefits of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment: How humanity and the rest of the biosphere will prosper from this amazing trace gas that so many have wrongfully characterized as a dangerous air pollutant

55 Positive Externalities: Hail to Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment



- From: Master Resource: A free market energy blog In my last post, I suggested that the externalities from coal-fired electricity generation were probably not as negative as was being touted in a recent report by Paul Epstein and colleagues from the Center for Health and the Global Environment. As further support for my contention, I submit the contents of a new book by copious carbon dioxide researchers Drs. Sherwood and Craig Idso titled “The Many Benefits of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment: How humanity and the rest of the biosphere will prosper from this amazing trace gas that so many have wrongfully characterized as a dangerous air pollutant!”

Support Canada Free Press


The father-son authors take the reader alphabetically through the many benefits from an atmosphere enriched with carbon dioxide that they have gleaned from the peer-reviewed scientific literature, as well as the results of their own experimentation (also documented in the literature). The Idsos's 55 subject areas of CO2's beneficial influence is backed by scientific references. The benefits by and large include only direct influences from higher CO2 levels, and don’t delve into indirect influences through, for example, climate change (with the exception of the inclusion of three or four categories dedicated to describing declines in human mortality and increases in human longevity). I include below the list of those 55 ways that the Idsos have identified “in which the modern rise in atmospheric CO2 is benefiting earth’s biosphere.” Hopefully, Paul Epstein and colleagues will pick up a copy of this book (available here), because I am certain that they did not include many of these considerations in their calculations. In the list below, I give only the category name, but a synopsis of CO2’s impact in each of the categories is contained in a pamphlet that summarizes the book, and which is available from the Science and Public Policy Institute. Okay, enough ado, here is the list of 55 ways in which increasing atmospheric CO2 produces direct benefits (and generate positive externalities from fossil fuel use): 1. Air Pollution Stress (Non–Ozone) 2. Air Pollution Stress (Ozone) 3. Avoiding Human Starvation and Plant and Animal Extinctions 4. Bacteria 5. Biodiversity 6. Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds (BVOCs) 7. Biomass 8. C4 Plants 9. CAM Plants 10. Carbon Sequestration 11. Diseases of Plants 12. Early Growth 13. Earthworms 14. Evolution 15. Flowers 16. Fluctuating Asymmetry 17. Glomalin 18. Health-Promoting Substances 19. Herbivory 20. Hormones 21. Human Longevity 22. Human Mortality (All Causes) 23. Human Mortality (Cardiovascular) 24. Human Mortality (Respiratory) 25. Iodocompounds 26. Isoprene 27. Light Stress 28. Lipids 29. Medicinal Plants 30. Monoterpenes 31. Nectar 32. Net Primary Productivity 33. Nitrogen Fixation 34. Nutrient Acquisition 35. Phosphorus Acquisition 36. Photosynthesis 37. Progressive Nitrogen Limitation 38. Reactive Oxygen Species 39. Root Exudation 40. Root Production 41. Salinity Stress 42. Seeds 43. Soil Erosion 44. Soil Toxicity 45. Starch 46. Tannins 47. Temperature Stress 48. Thylakoid Membranes 49. Transpiration 50. UV-B Radiation Stress 51. Vegetative Storage Proteins 52. Water Stress 53. Water-Use Efficiency 54. Weeds 55. Wood Density As the Idsos put it:
[This book] may not be everything you "always wanted to know" about the bright side of the issue; but it illuminates a number of significant aspects of earth's biosphere and its workings, as well as mankind's reliance on the biosphere for food and numerous other material necessities that are hardly ever mentioned by the mainstream media.


View Comments

Guest Column Chip Knappenberger -- Bio and Archives

Items of notes and interest from the web.


Sponsored