Plant response to global warming underestimated.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/02/plants-climate-idUSL5E8FUAC520120502

It's another example of science issuing a prediction on global warming, only to be left behind by the actual results of global warming.

Yeah. Alarmism, not so much.

Now you might say, this is GOOD news, right? We LIKE flowers, let's have more of them! If the roses want to bloom in February, great, we won't have to buy a bouquet at the florist for Valentine's day! Â But it's more complex. What if the pollinators are not available when the flowers bloom? Â What if the migrations of animals do not line up with food supplies for the animals? Nature does not use the internet- the timing has to work out for everybody, not just one element of the picture.

This is new territory, that's all. New territory always has surprises. Surprises are not always happy. When the surprises are not happy, it's very possible that there will be no practical solution to the surprise.

Comments: 13

David K. May 2, 2012, 8:12pm UTC

It's not nice to fool Mother Nature.

reply to this comment

Steve B. May 2, 2012, 8:44pm UTC

Denialists like to say how good for plants CO2 is. But like you say, it's more complicated - and denialists don't like complicated. They promote simplistic slogans and call that evidence.

reply to this comment

Sam Carana May 2, 2012, 9:18pm UTC

Also see my post Spring comes early and the comments there!

Steve B. May 3, 2012, 12:56am UTC

Excellent article on this topic, Sam.

reply to this comment

Larry M. May 2, 2012, 9:38pm UTC

Nature will adjust to the change but we may not like the adjustment.

reply to this comment

Char H. May 2, 2012, 10:06pm UTC

The plants are responding, as they have done before. But we are deforesting the planet too fast. We need to put all our efforts into buying up forests, and stop cutting ours. With all the synthetic materials in use, the forests are more valuable where they stand. We the people need to quit letting them cut the one's WE OWN for pennies through leases that favor the politically connected.

Chris Wiegard May 2, 2012, 10:24pm UTC

but Char, the denialists are explaining that we now have so much CO2 in the sky that we will be able to cut down all the forests we want, because the trees will grow back in only 3 or 4 years!!

:)

Char H. May 2, 2012, 11:42pm UTC

Well, they are wrong! It is a crime how they are destroying things that should be left alone, not plundered for profits.

Steve B. May 3, 2012, 12:56am UTC

"It is a crime how they are destroying things that should be left alone...."

Agreed....

reply to this comment

Chuck Larlham May 2, 2012, 11:27pm UTC

Char, I'd like to know where this new meme you're suddenly spouting came from. My graduate degree is in Ecology, from the Wildlife Biology Department in the School of Forestry at Utah State University. I have to tell you... while deforestation is a problem, 't'is true, it's not related to global warming (well not as a response to a statement that man has a hand in it anyway), and it's going to be irrelevant as global warming throws things more and more out of whack.

But I don't want to argue with you. I want to see the blog that fed you this as a global warming response. THAT'S who I want to argue with.

Char H. May 2, 2012, 11:39pm UTC

I don't have anybody feeding it to me, Chuck. It is one of the CO2 syncs used to keep the atmosphere in balance. CO2 goes up, so does plant growth, filling the air with oxygen, then the CO2 goes down, the growth slows down and around we go. Do you dispute that? Let me ask you this, do you think if we are a frozen planet, a new ice age, that plants will flourish? Remember, the ice cores show an oxygen rich atmosphere. These cycles have gone on forever, and we are near a warm maximum, the opposite of the ice age. Earth is doing what it does, just like volcanoes killed everything.

reply to this comment

libramoon .. May 3, 2012, 1:01am UTC

We can combine so many solutions by improving the greening of our cities with parks, roof gardens, community gardens, planting trees, and coming up with more ideas to make use of natural symbiosis.

Char H. May 3, 2012, 11:12am UTC

That's what I'm thinking! It is one of the things we should use regulations for, that really should hurt nobody. Use the funds we waste instead to preserve the land, staying in our footprints.

reply to this comment

Plant response to global warming underestimated.

6 people recommend this post

Comments: 13

Join the Conversation