Earthsky FC_AquaTerra, Interviews
Steve Running: ‘Plants can’t counter global climate change’
09-07-2009 - Earth
Ecologist Steve Running of the University of Montana studies how Earth’s trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide or CO2, a greenhouse gas known to contribute to global warming. Some say that as Earth warms, more plants will grow and absorb more CO2 – and counteract Earth’s warming. But Dr. Running disagrees.
Steve Running: We really don’t see evidence that global vegetation can be a savior for carbon emissions.
Dr. Running uses NASA’s Terra satellite to create daily maps of plant photosynthesis. He says Earth’s northern latitudes are ‘greening’ – vegetation is now growing there more abundantly than when he began this work in the early 90s. But, while Earth’s plants might slow down global warming by removing CO2 from the air, Running said, he doesn’t think plants offer a long-term solution to global warming.
Steve Running: The only solution that adds up on a global scale is reduced emissions, because the land surface can’t absorb dramatically more than what it’s absorbing now. And we may actually lose some of the carbon uptake potential as areas, large regions, become water stressed with rising temperatures. And so we can’t count on vegetation CO2 uptake as a comprehensive solution at all to the imbalanced global carbon cycle.
That’s true, he said, because while plant growth is increasing, there are also increased destructive factors at work.
Steve Running: Vegetation productivity in the boreal and temperate regions appears to be increasing by maybe 45 to 46 percent over twenty years. The counterpoint is that we’re now quantifying that forest clearing, wildfires, deforestation, on a global basis is now a major part of the CO2 emissions every year. They are actually about 20 percent of what fossil fuel emissions are. So on the one hand, we have vegetation growing better in temperate and boreal forests, but on the other hand we have accelerating disturbance, deforestation, and fire emissions that are actually increasing the CO2 emissions from the terrestrial landscape.
Some see a flourishing of plant life in certain areas as a good thing. Dr. Running shared his thoughts.
Steve Running: We try to just speak with our facts as scientists here, and there’s certainly no doubt in our minds that as global warming proceeds, there are going to be parts of the world that in many ways are better off, and other parts of the world that will definitely be losers. And when it comes to the terrestrial biosphere, particularly the very high cold latitude areas will be warming, and their vegetation flourishing to some extent. The permafrost will also melt, and so we try not to put value judgments on these facts. We try to just state them as just the measurements as we see.
Our thanks today to NASA’s Earth Observatory and TERRA mission, helping us better understand and protect our home planet.
To read more about Dr. Running, see Why the Earth Observing System matters to all of us on the Earth Observatory.
Written by Jorge Salazar
7 Responses to “Steve Running: ‘Plants can’t counter global climate change’”
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Steve Running
Forest ecologist Steve Running develops computer models of global and regional ecosystems to study Earth’s changing climate. Dr. Running is a professor at the University of Montana and a team member of the NASA Earth Observing System. He is on the board of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and was a chapter lead ... >>
Interesting.
There is no global warming occurring right now. The earth is cooling rather rapidly due to the sun’s inactivity. Fact. CO2 is a trailing indicator, not a cause. Fact. Another fact is that if the socialist do succeed in cutting our carbon emmissions to the extent they wish, massive human die-offs will occur. Fact. This is not about the climate. This is about control. Fact.
Jorge,
I believe you misquoted Dr. Running in your text. In the 8 minute interview, Dr. states at timeline 4:15 that vegetation productivity has “increased by four to five to six percent in temperate regions over the past 20 years…” in your text you state “… increasing by maybe 45 to 46 percent over twenty years.”
Kind regards,
Hank
Thanks for catching that typo, Hank!
Can plant any plants in the world walk?
Victor,
Here is a link to an interesting article that may answer your question:
[http://hubpages.com/hub/Walking-Banana-Plants]
Interesting! We live in an amazing world …
I would like to add a couple of points. In greenhouses we add CO2 to the atmosphere to increase plant growth rates. At 1000 ppm at a standard temp, plant growth doubles compared to growth at ambient concentrations. At 150 ppm, photosynthetic plant growth ceases. CO2 is not a pollutuant at any levels we the people could possibly generate on our worst behavior. At 250ppm,CO2, plant growth is stunted.
These are biological facts. Please do a little research and see that we re not in danger from the SUV. We are in danger if we decide to wreck our economy.
People are waking up. Real science will win.
Global warming is a fraud and a lie. It is a crime against humanity. People will die as a result of the “cures” proposed.
The IPCC was caught red-handed this summer cooking the data, purposely. Al Gore needs to publicly give his Nobel Prize to Stephen McIntyre for exposing them. Others have clearly shown sun radiation and sun spot cycles are the reason for temperatures and fluctuations.
The temperature and CO2 levels are at nearly all time epoch LOWS — going back to 300+ million years. CO2 levels have been 800% higher, and temperatures 10% higher, without linkage. The dinosaurs did not drive SUV’s.
Why aren’t the GreenWashers happy, instead of censoring real science?
Because Green is the new Red.
Bic, you are incorrect. What’s presented here is real science, and the Earth has indeed been warming since records began being kept about 150 years ago. The warming isn’t constant however. There are highs and lows. Yes, we’re in a cooling now, but the overall trend is indeed toward a warming world. Here is the actual data showing that:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.A2.txt
Can you show me actual data showing something different? I suspect you can’t. You’ve been misled.
Best,
Deborah