Humans and animals produce carbon dioxide; plants and trees absorb it. Climate change is the result of the fact that we have disturbed that delicate balance with an explosive growth in the use of fossil fuels. For decades, we’ve been pumping billions of tons of harmful greenhouse gases into the air, and plants have not been able to keep up. In fact, only some 45 percent of the carbon dioxide we emit, is absorbed back into the biosphere by the world’s vegetation and oceans. However, climate scientists are now discovering something surprising. Between 2002 and 2014, plants appeared to have upped their game, pulling more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere than in previous decades. It seems that plants are absorbing some 20 percent more than according to historical trends.
Plants to the rescue, absorbing more CO2 in response to climate change
More of Today's Solutions
New method uses sound waves to map soil health, stop famine, and restore farm...
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Across the world, soil scientists are trading in their shovels for something unexpected: seismic sensors. In a breakthrough ...
Read MoreThis simple 15-minute mindset exercise can ease anxiety, science shows
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM A growing body of research is revealing how a short, simple activity that is done in just 15 ...
Read More3 habits of the happiest people
Think of the happiest people you know. Do you find yourself often wondering what they are doing to maintain a general level of joy? ...
Read MoreChangemakers of the week: GRuB and SparkNJ
Every day on the Optimist Daily, we report on solutions from around the world. Though we love solutions big and small, the ones that ...
Read More
