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Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Forbes nonsense on climate change and tree growth

According to 
James Conca 
in Forbes, 
“Our planet’s forests 
are adapting to global 
warming, as one 
would expect.” 

Conca goes on 
to claim that 
a new study 
in Science says:
“rising temperatures 
and carbon dioxide 
have been altering 
the world’s forests 
through increased 
stress and carbon 
dioxide fertilization”. 

It makes sense
that carbon dioxide 
fertilization and 
warmth would make 
forests grow faster, 
and in places where 
growth used to be 
difficult.

CO2 greening 
has improved 
agriculture in 
marginal areas. 

Climate change 
is creating saplings 
-- new tree growth.

Conca writes that
“Losing larger trees 
is a bad thing for us 
and lots of other life 
on earth. 

Because 
old growth forests 
store more 
carbon compared
to younger 
smaller forests, 
it’s harder to mitigate 
the worst effects 
of climate change 
without them.”

It's true that old trees 
have more carbon 
stored in them.

But fast-growing 
young trees 
sequester more 
carbon as they grow.

That should have been 
highlighted in the 
Forbes article.

But it was not.