Comment by gitaarik
4 days ago
> Plants the world over are absorbing about 31% more carbon dioxide than previously thought, according to a new assessment developed by scientists.
So that means our supposed CO2 problem is 31% smaller than we previously thought?
No, the atmospheric CO2 measurements are unaffected by this. We definitely have a CO2 problem despite plants being more effective at extracting it than previously thought.
Another way of looking at it is that planting trees may be more effective at removing CO2 than previously thought, and deforestation somewhat more harmful.
Well, wouldn't it be correct to say that now, with the new numbers, CO2 uptake of plants will be 31% more than previously thought? So every coming year, there will be 31% more CO2 converted into oxygen than previously thought?
That just means that CO2 emissions are actually higher than previously thought. We directly measure atmospheric CO2.
Previously we believed that ocean, wetlands, soil, and geological activity absorb about 75% of the CO2. Plants account for around 25% of the carbon absorption.
The research doesn't indicate that more carbon in total is absorbed than we thought - we've got a pretty solid understanding of the total carbon absorption capacity, because we measure it directly, rather than model it. It indicates that a larger proportion of the carbon absorption comes from plants than we thought (around 33%, instead of 25%), with the other sources taking on proportionally less of the absorption.
This research will allow us to more accurately model how land use impacts CO2 though, and will likely put a higher premium on protecting plant life in any carbon assessments.
Aha, yeah that makes sense. But I can't really see that in the article.
Sadly not, because most carbon is absorbed by the ocean, not plants. And second because all of the nasty warming trends are still out there
Or this statistic means that actually much more oxygen is converted by plants compared to being processed by the ocean?
So it means planting extra plants to fight CO2 is much more effective than previously thought?
I would say no. We still have data on our year to year/decade to decade C02 in the atmosphere. So we can track how quickly it's rising. Those data points would already include any error we have in how much C02 is absorbed or created.
> supposed CO2 problem
No. This study has changed precisely nothing about how we measure CO2 in the atmosphere. Or climate change in general.