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Many forecasts for climate change assume that tropical forests will continue to soak up carbon dioxide as the world warms. What if they don’t? Apart from the experts, few people realize that climate change could be worse. Every year, trees, shrubs, and every other kind of plant absorb 9 billion tons of CO2—one quarter of what we let loose from our tailpipes and smokestacks—and help slow the gas’s accumulation in the atmosphere. If not for the world’s photosynthesizers, the concentration of CO2 in the air, along with Earth’s temperature, would be rising much faster than it already is.
Many forecasts for climate change assume that tropical forests will continue to soak up carbon dioxide as the world warms. What if they don’t? Apart from the experts, few people realize that climate change could be worse. Every year, trees, shrubs, and every other kind of plant absorb 9 billion tons of CO2—one quarter of what we let loose from our tailpipes and smokestacks—and help slow the gas’s accumulation in the atmosphere. If not for the world’s photosynthesizers, the concentration of CO2 in the air, along with Earth’s temperature, would be rising much faster than it already is.
There is one slender thread of hope that tropical jungles will keep buffering the amount of CO2 building up in the air. Scientists have long known that plants grow better in CO2-enriched air, and some hypothesize that steadily rising amounts of atmospheric carbon might protect forests’ health despite the otherwise deteriorating circumstances. Most likely, such carbon fertilization has already boosted the productivity of forests all over the world. But many researchers who study tropical forests predict that whatever benefit trees are getting will wane. It may have already started to taper off.
There is one slender thread of hope that tropical jungles will keep buffering the amount of CO2 building up in the air. Scientists have long known that plants grow better in CO2-enriched air, and some hypothesize that steadily rising amounts of atmospheric carbon might protect forests’ health despite the otherwise deteriorating circumstances. Most likely, such carbon fertilization has already boosted the productivity of forests all over the world. But many researchers who study tropical forests predict that whatever benefit trees are getting will wane. It may have already started to taper off.
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