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Nasa Happily Reports the Earth Is Greener

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Re: Nasa Happily Reports the Earth Is Greener

#41

Post by ioulian »

Pxtl wrote: post #12
keiferski wrote: post #11

Serious question from a non-climate scientist: would an increase in global temperatures due to climate change ultimately cause more greenery, due to new growth in previously too-cold areas?

Well, I don't know about temperature, but we do know that plants grow faster in the presence of excessive CO2. But that's a double-edged sword, because their nutritional value per unit mass goes down , in terms of trace nutrients - with abundant CO2, they can use more air to build more empty carbs, but that means the critical nutrients they pull from the soil are present in lower concentrations.

You can easily see this effect on Highways (in Europe where trees are planted just at the edge of the road). The trees there are the first ones that turn green (and get greener much faster) while the trees in the farmland are still without leaves.

Re: Nasa Happily Reports the Earth Is Greener

#42

Post by briandear »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #38
adnzzzzZ wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

80% of my country's (Brazil) energy generation is done through renewable means. This isn't even close to true for most first world countries, and certainly not the US. Maybe before worrying about countries you know nothing about (as well as carelessly calling our elected officials fascists) you should start looking at your own, wherever you're from. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electrici...

I've noticed a trend where Americans outright call Bolsonaro a fascist, even serious economists appearing on podcasts. I suspect they are compensating for not being "allowed" to call their own president what they really want to.

Let’s be accurate: left-wing Americans call him a fascist. But to be fair to Bolsonaro, the other guy was worse.

Re: Nasa Happily Reports the Earth Is Greener

#43

Post by AckSyn »

b_tterc_p wrote: post #3

The title says trees but I think it really means “greenness” from a satillite view. Reading around the bottom, while India and China have done substantial tree planting programs, it sounds like a large chunk of this may be driven by unsustainable use of farm land. I’m not clear on how their increased farm usage corresponds to greenness and whether that matters. Would be curious if anyone can chime in.

> it sounds like a large chunk of this may be driven by unsustainable use of farm land

With what basis are you qualifying this assumption?

Re: Nasa Happily Reports the Earth Is Greener

#44

Post by User23 »

icebraining wrote: post #36
blotter_paper wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a fun thought: they could hold the rainforest hostage. Hey world that relies on our land to absorb carbon, we're gonna start deforesting and developing x acres per year unless you pay us y dollars not to. Nice biosphere you've got here, it'd be a shame if somebody threw a brick through the equilibrium...

Equador tried that [1]. The world didn't care. [1] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/09/02/216878935/ecua...

The money has never indicated it cares about global warming or sea level rise. No rich people are looking to liquidate their beachfront New York, Florida, or California property, and they're certainly not buying up Alaskan beaches speculating on the next Greenland farming bonanza. Startup idea: global warming REIT.

Re: Nasa Happily Reports the Earth Is Greener

#45

Post by Hypx »

beachy wrote: post #21
devmunchies wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think being a fascist has anything to do with deforestation. There’s a history of fascists wanting to preserve the “motherland”. Even views such as ecofascism as portrayed in Linkola’s Can Life Prevail? I only care about ecologically minded governments and I don’t care about left or right. It’s the only important issue at this point.

[flagged]

This is about the worst kind of end justifying the means mentality. This type of thinking should be avoided as much as possible.

Re: Nasa Happily Reports the Earth Is Greener

#48

Post by badgley »

keiferski wrote: post #11

Serious question from a non-climate scientist: would an increase in global temperatures due to climate change ultimately cause more greenery, due to new growth in previously too-cold areas?

it's a bit of a double edged sword. warmer springs are definitely a good thing for plants in terms of growth. but in the united states, at least, there is evidence that the positive effect of warmer springs will be offset by drier, hotter summers that are not ideal for growth.

here is a discussion of a neat study in 2016 that showed this effect: https://www.pnas.org/content/113/21/5768

the already warm tropics are expected to get even warmer, which likely isn't great for the forests there.

Re: Nasa Happily Reports the Earth Is Greener

#49

Post by taneq »

FriedPickles wrote: post #18

From what I understand, the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide will have a massive greening effect on the Earth (plants love CO2). But it seems this fact is usually omitted so as not to complicate the intended message. I always found it ironic that the "eco" mode button in many cars is a leaf icon.

> it seems this fact is usually omitted so as not to complicate the intended message

Any time a group starts altering the facts like this, it just shows that they value their 'message' above the truth, and they lose all credibility.

Edit: Downvote = disagree, or people genuinely believe it's OK to lie to further your cause, I'm not sure what's more disturbing.

Re: Nasa Happily Reports the Earth Is Greener

#50

Post by keithnz »

andy_ppp wrote: post #47

Would it be possible to turn a desert region into a rain forest? For example if Nevada decided to plant trees in the dessert is it possible with enough irrigation or would all the trees just die?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI I watched this talk a while back, TL;DW Yes, you can.
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