Can CO2 be a Good Thing?

Reported June 2007

FORT COLLINS, Colo., (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Too much carbon dioxide can be a bad thing, but sometimes it can have a positive effect on plants and trees. The more carbon emissions we dump into the air, the faster forests and plants grow.

This new revelation is the result of research done by the North American carbon program. Scott Denning, Ph.D., a physicist from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, explains the North American Carbon Program, "We are measuring CO2 in the atmosphere at dozens of places every hour around the United States and Canada."

About 100 cell phone and aircraft towers dotting the North American landscape are providing a network to measure CO2 in the atmosphere. Physicists tracking the data have found an unexpected benefit of rising carbon dioxide levels. Dr. Denning says it's unusual. "Stuff is growing faster than it's dying, which is weird," he says.

The answer may have more to do with how plants use CO2. During photosynthesis, plants take in carbon dioxide from the air to make food, but as a plant decays, CO2 is released back it into the air. Plans are underway to use cell phone towers worldwide for measuring CO2, expanding the carbon program globally. The bad part is plants can't clean the air as fast as we are polluting it.

The American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Department of Atmospheric Science
Scott Denning, Ph.D.
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1371
970-491-6936
denning@atmos.colostate.edu

American Geophysical Union
Washington, DC 20009-1277
800-966-2481
http://www.agu.org

American Meteorological Society
Boston, MA 02108-3693
617-227-2425
http://www.ametsoc.or

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