Guest “Torching a Straw Man” by David Middleton
Is CO2 plant food? Why are we still talking about this?
the climate-denier zombie argument that, unlike plants, won’t die
Feb 20, 2025
Recent interviews with Trump administration officials have revived a persistent myth in climate change discussions: “CO2 is plant food”. This is one of those zombie climate-denial arguments that just never goes away because 1) it’s a simple argument and 2) it seems intuitive — after all, plants need carbon dioxide, so more of it must be good, right?
Yes, CO2 enhances photosynthesis. But crops don’t grow in a vacuum, they also need water, temperatures in a particular range, and farmers need predictable seasons. Climate change disrupts all of those.
[…]
Climate change disrupts all of those
Disrupts all of what? Global agricultural data are easily available from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAOSTAT).
Oh! But that’s just wheat and corn! That’s true. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of agricultural products. FAOSTAT also publishes an agricultural Gross Production Index relative to 2014-2016.
Straw Man?
I don’t know of any scientifically literate skeptics who say that more CO2 is better simply because it’s plant food. Nor do I know of any who think that the rise in atmospheric CO2 is the sole reason for improved agricultural output over the past 64 years.
Although, it clearly is plant food. And we know that substantially less CO2 would be very bad for plants. There is compelling evidence that CO2 in the range of 180-220 ppm induced carbon starvation in C3 plants during the Last Glacial Maximum (Ward et al., 2005). While there might be a point at which more atmospheric CO2 could do more harm than good, the rise from 280 to 420 ppm has clearly been beneficial. It’s largely been beneficial due to the exploitation of fossil fuels over the past 160 years,
From 1800 to 1900, per capita energy consumption, primarily from biomass, remained relatively flat; as did the average life expectancy. From 1900 to 1978, per capita energy consumption roughly tripled with the rapid growth in fossil fuel production (coal, oil & gas). This was accompanied by a doubling of average life expectancy. While I can’t say that fossil fuels caused the increase in life expectancy, I can unequivocally state that everything that enabled the increase in life expectancy wouldn’t have existed or happened without fossil fuels, particularly petroleum.
Our modern society would not exist without fossil fuels and it would collapse in a heartbeat if fossil fuels were made unavailable and/or unaffordable. One of the coolest things about being a petroleum geologist, is that I can give thanks for fossil fuels and say “you’re welcome” in the same sentence.
Funny thing, Andrew Dessler is a professor at Texas A&M University.
The Permanent University Fund (PUF) is a public endowment contributing to the support of eligible institutions of The University of Texas and The Texas A&M University Systems. The PUF was established in the Texas Constitution of 1876 through the appropriation of land grants previously given to The University of Texas, as well as an additional one million acres of land. Additional land grants to the PUF were completed in 1883 with the contribution of another one million acres. Today, the PUF contains over 2.1 million acres of land primarily located in 19 counties in West Texas.
The PUF’s primary investment objective is to maximize investment returns within the risk parameters specified in the PUF Investment Policy Statement without regard to the distribution rate.
The PUF is invested in a broad mix of investments and is actively managed to its policy portfolio or benchmark. UTIMCO allocates the PUF’s assets to internally and externally managed portfolios in accordance with guidelines approved in the PUF Investment Policy Statement.
[…]
References
Lomborg, Bjorn . Welfare in the 21st century: Increasing development, reducing inequality, the impact of climate change, and the cost of climate policies. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. Volume 156, 2020, 119981, ISSN 0040-1625, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.119981.
MacFarling Meure, C., D. Etheridge, C. Trudinger, P. Steele, R. Langenfelds, T. van Ommen, A. Smith, and J. Elkins (2006), Law Dome CO2, CH4 and N2O ice core records extended to 2000 years BP, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L14810, doi:10.1029/2006GL026152.
Ward, Joy K.; Harris, John M.; Cerling, Thure E.; Wiedenhoeft, Alex; Lott, Michael J.; Dearing, Maria-Denise; Coltrain, Joan B.; Ehleringer, James R. 2005. Carbon starvation in glacial trees recovered from the La Brea tar pits, southern California. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Vol. 102, no. 3 (Jan. 18, 2005): p. 690-694
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