Matt Ridley, author of The Red Queen, Genome, The Rational Optimist and other books, dropped by Reason's studio in Los Angeles last month to talk about a curious global trend that is just starting to receive attention. Over the past three decades, our planet has gotten greener!
Even stranger, the greening of the planet in recent decades appears to be happening because of, not despite, our reliance on fossil fuels. While environmentalists often talk about how bad stuff like CO2 causes bad things to happen like global warming, it turns out that the plants aren't complaining.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at March 17, 2013 12:51 AM
Thank you, Gerard.
Posted by: Leslie at March 17, 2013 9:10 AMWell then brace yourselves for the next wave of enviroweenie scare headlines..."CO2 Causing Mutant Man-eating Plants to Flourish Around the Globe!!!"
Posted by: Uncle Jefe at March 17, 2013 11:29 AM"Nature does not heed the call.
Nature just commands; that's all"
(from lyrics of a John Hiatt song)
Posted by: chasmatic at March 17, 2013 4:52 PMMy father bought and sold seed for a living when he was still working.
I remember asking dad about the use of alcohol as a fuel to replace gasoline about 25 years ago. He told me that it would be unethical to do that, as we would essentially be burning food in our gas tanks and there were still people starving in the world.
Posted by: Duncan at March 17, 2013 11:35 PMI learned as a kid that higher CO2 levels led to greater vegetation growth. The so-called Carbonaceous Era was said to have had higher levles of CO2 than modern times. We have discarded so much sound knowledge in our pursuit of Fad Science.
Posted by: Don Rodrigo at March 19, 2013 2:44 PM"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated to combat spam and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.
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