The Climate Brink

Share this post

Is CO2 plant food?

www.theclimatebrink.com

Discover more from The Climate Brink

The Choice is Ours: Climate Disaster or a Sustainable Future
Over 7,000 subscribers
Continue reading
Sign in

Is CO2 plant food?

David Lobell gives me the answer

Andrew Dessler
Jun 5, 2023
10
Share this post

Is CO2 plant food?

www.theclimatebrink.com
7
Share

I read on Twitter that “CO2 is plant food.” That didn’t seem right, so I asked David Lobell, one of the world’s experts on climate change and agriculture. He’s a professor at Stanford, a MacArthur genius grant recipient, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and an all-around good guy.

Here’s what he said:

The bottom line:

Me: So are you worried about the climate impacts on agriculture?

David Lobell: Yes. I think the evidence is very clear that, on net, the changes going on in the atmosphere, including all the climate changes, are a risk to a lot of major production systems and to a lot of food insecure areas. So there's definitely a reason that we that we continue to work on how to adapt to these changes.

So next time someone says “CO2 is plant food,” please send them this post.

Thanks for reading The Climate Brink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

10
Share this post

Is CO2 plant food?

www.theclimatebrink.com
7
Share
7 Comments
Share this discussion

Is CO2 plant food?

www.theclimatebrink.com
Levi
Jun 5Liked by Andrew Dessler

Is there a threshold where you run the risk of multiple breadbasket failures in any given year. I know there's no tenth of a degree that is a cliff, but I'd there any level where it's obvious things are much worse and it's a non linear risk.

Thanks!

Expand full comment
Reply
Share
Jed
Writes The Spouter
Jun 5

NITROGEN is plant food:

https://apocalypse-confidential.com/2023/04/22/nitrogen/

Expand full comment
Reply
Share
5 more comments...
Top
New
Community

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Andrew Dessler & Zeke Hausfather
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing