Hey Deniers. Corn Called. CO2 Not all That Good for Plants.
April 12, 2012
Global warming may initially make the grass greener, but not for long, according to new research results.
The findings, published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change, show that plants may thrive in the early stages of a warming environment but then begin to deteriorate quickly.
“We were really surprised by the pattern, where the initial boost in growth just went away,” said scientist Zhuoting Wu of Northern Arizona University (NAU), a lead author of the study. “As ecosystems adjusted, the responses changed.”
Ecologists subjected four grassland ecosystems to simulated climate change during a decade-long study.
Plants grew more the first year in the global warming treatment, but this effect progressively diminished over the next nine years and finally disappeared.
The research shows the long-term effects of global warming on plant growth, on the plant species that make up a community, and on changes in how plants use or retain essential resources like nitrogen.
“The plants and animals around us repeatedly serve up surprises,” said Saran Twombly, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.
“These results show that we miss these surprises because we don’t study natural communities over the right time scales. For plant communities in Arizona, it took researchers 10 years to find that responses of native plant communities to warmer temperatures were the opposite of those predicted.”
A hard freeze has wiped out a big portion of the cherry crop in Northwest Michigan this spring. The area produces more than half the state’s cherries that end up in desserts, juice and as dried fruit.
An historic early warm-up in March left fruit trees vulnerable to frost once the weather turned cooler again.
Temperatures broke records for the month of March across the Great Lakes region.Climate researchers say there’s never been anything like it going back more than a hundred years.”We’re seeing history made before our eyes at least in terms of climatology.”
Jeff Andresen is the state’s climatologist and professor of geography at Michigan State. “And in some ways if we look at where our vegetation is and how advanced it is, it’s probably a month ahead of where it typically is.”
Andresen is careful to point out that this year’s early warm-up is an extreme weather event.
He says it far outpaces the previous warmest March on record in 1945. He can’t say it’s a direct result of climate change. But it fits the predicted long term pattern of change that includes extreme fluctuations.
During one period, there were several straight days of above 80 degree daytime highs and nighttime temperatures in the 60’s.
Philippe Coquard could use some sleep. He’s the co-owner of the Wollersheim Winery in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin. And he’s been up two nights in a row. He blames it on the weather.
PHILLIPPE COQUARD: The month of March was like summer, which we never see that in Wisconsin. And everybody is so happy and it feels like summer. Well, it’s not good to us.
CORNISH: That’s because Coquard’s 27 acres of grapevines budded a month ahead of schedule. And now there’s frost. Coquard and other vineyard and orchard owners in southern Wisconsin are trying to protect those fragile buds. Some build bonfires, some use large tarps. Coquard says his work starts at 1:30 in the morning.
COQUARD: So, soon as the temperature will hit 35 degree Fahrenheit at two feet off the ground, then it triggers an alarm – it calls me in my house. Then I will come to the winery and start our protection equipment.
CORNISH: There are three wind machines positioned at the lowest and therefore coldest part of the vineyards. They keep the cold air moving so the vines don’t freeze. Then there’s the fire dragon. It’s pulled by a tractor.
COQUARD: You start the fire and there’s a big fan that will draw warm air and shoots it right and left. And you will cover almost 60 or 70 feet on each side of that device.
CORNISH: Hot in the rear but still cold at the wheel. Coquard and his assistance take turns driving the dragon all around the vineyard until morning. So far, there’s minimal damage to his vines. But there could be more cold next week. As for now…
COQUARD: I’m due to go take a nap and…
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
July 17, 2012 at 11:03 pm
[…] necessarily bad: Ongoing research into the effects of increased CO2 on plant growth clearly show short-term benefits are quickly overtaken by longer-term adverse consequences – especially if increased CO2 is combined with increased temperature. Furthermore, as predicted […]
September 10, 2012 at 11:23 pm
The title of this article should be:
Nobody buys the B.S. anymore:
Bye Bye Nazis!!!!!!!!! Better start Reading the Constitution, and tear down your Kari Noorguard posters…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/10/global-carbon-trading-system
Time to join the modern world AGW religionists, and stop supporting Big Oil!!!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/10/global-carbon-trading-system
October 22, 2012 at 9:16 pm
Al Gore (your GOD) : “Snow is a thing of the past”
uh oh, your nazi uniforms and your Kari Noorgard posters are on hold:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2012/10/22/califs-first-storm-of-season-brings-2-feet-snow/1650059/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomNation-TopStories+%28News+-+Nation+-+Top+Stories%29
October 22, 2012 at 9:26 pm
I always welcome posters such as yourself, because I like to have a ready example of the ignorance this blog is meant to remedy.
Post away – just keep it clean, ok?
October 22, 2012 at 9:52 pm
When a seemingly ultra right-winger is comparing progressive people with nazis then it only shows us that he has no clue whatsoever about the subject.
October 22, 2012 at 10:21 pm
shhh. you’ll frighten him away.
We want to study his natural behavior.
November 27, 2012 at 1:07 am
James Hansen (Op-Ed column, Monday) presents another the-sky-is-falling piece on man-made anthropogenic global warming. His study of temperatures since 1951 perceives more extreme weather from AGW. Hansen, having been arrested numerous times for trespassing and unruly behavior, should be mistaken neither for a serious person nor a scientist. He is a fervent AGW activist.
Hansen ruthlessly tortures data to “prove” a predetermined outcome … not a scientific process. Had he used a study period including the 1930s, his study would have proven the opposite of his Op-Ed assertions. He eagerly implies this summer’s drought is due to AGW. But by avoiding earlier years in his study, Hansen is able to ignore the economically ruinous dust-bowl drought that lasted for years in the 1930s … and that was before humanity had even gotten its fossil-fuel use into low gear.
For good reason, Hansen scampers away from theoretical climate models. While models have predicted sharp temperature increases, the real world isn’t following those forecasts.
Hansen’s solution to “global warming” is typical for the alarmists: Punish America with energy taxes until we reduce fuel consumption by 80 percent. Then, have the government fritter away the tax money on feel-good things (government is very good at frittering). So while China and India are building coal-fired power plants at breathtaking speed to support their mushrooming economies (and eating our economic lunches), America would be expected to return to an economy of approximately the 1890s.
The Fat Lady is not warming up, she in not singing, she has turned off the mic, lowered the curtain, and is in the parking lot…
Time to move on people.
Close your eyes, click your heels together (yes, Toto too!), and repeat 3 times:
There is no place like H.O.M.E.
(Honest Open Minded Environmentalism)
December 20, 2012 at 5:06 pm
Ohssssss Nooosssss!!!
Our Green Nazi Uniforms aren’t coming!!!!!!
Do we still get the Kari Norgaard posters???
http://rt.com/news/russia-freeze-cold-temperature-379/
February 5, 2013 at 12:43 am
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/arctic-ice-growth-blows-away-all-records/
Ohhhh Noooooooossssss!!!!!
Our Nazi Leader Al Gore has cancelled our uniforms, but but but but,, bbbbb….but….
Can we keep the Kari Norgaard Swimsuit Calanders????
Oh Yeah, losers…..Lord Monckton IS YOUR DADDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 29, 2013 at 3:41 am
It’s so sad,
what are you guys/gals gonna do?
I hope we can keep you out of prison, maybe put you in a cage at a zoo to teach future generations about what happens when greed strips reason.
It would be the Zoo of:
Weapons of Mass Destruction
No Mercury in Vaccines
The Economy is fine, we don’t need jobs to make it better
GMO is safe
The Government is our friend, and we need to expand it endlessly
Global Warming/(we got pwned so we changed it to Climate Change, duh welcome to Earth) is caused by poison CO2 (nothing green without it, double-duh) and Al Gore’s bank account is the only way to fix it
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2013/03/28/the-meltdown-of-global-warmists-reveals-their-true-priorities/