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> these plants are in effect starved for CO2, because they evolved during time periods with much higher CO2 levels

Oh, the old argument trotted out again. What do you mean, plants "evolved" in the past and then what? Stopped evolving? If plants were starved of CO2 now they would go extinct, which they aren't. To prove my point, I present exhibit A: The Amazon rainforest.



Starvation is not equivalent to death, it means that plants are not growing as fast nor as well as they would with higher levels of CO2.

This is a proven fact and has been amply demonstrated in scientific experiments; it is related to well-understood biological processes in photosynthesis. It is the reason greenhouses deliberately increase CO2 ppm. [1] And yes, the plant kingdom has evolved just a few pathways for photosynthesis that worked well at much higher CO2 levels (10-15x current) when they originated; and these pathways are not magically "evolving" to function with diminishing CO2 levels, they've merely become suboptimal given the atmospheric conditions in the last million years, and would stop working below specific levels.

Your ignorant dismissals are moronic denials of facts and science. Surely you don't pretend that there is no lower limit to the viable amount of CO2 in the air for Earth vegetation to survive?

[1] http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/00-077.htm#s...


this is why I have been trying to promote CO2 production to a target level of 1200PPM. With enough solar, biofuels and wind -- which are all net negative entry input vs energy output (which promotes CO2 production) I was hoping we could do this.




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