Climate change is turning trees into carbon gluttons

From phys.org:

A study recently published in the Journal Nature Communications, finds that elevated carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have increased wood volume—or the biomass—of forests in the United States.

Although other factors like climate and pests can somewhat affect a tree’s volume, the study found that elevated carbon levels consistently led to an increase of wood volume in 10 different temperate forest groups across the country. This suggests that trees are helping to shield Earth’s ecosystem from the impacts of global warming through their rapid growth.

You can read the article, with link to the study, here.

This is the sort of effect that leads climate deniers to the “CO2 is *good* for us!” argument – although that’s harder to make when your house has been destroyed by a hurricane, your food costs have doubled due to drought and flood, and climate refugees are swarming at the border.