{"id":336959,"date":"2024-07-19T08:42:31","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T06:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336959"},"modified":"2024-07-19T08:42:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T06:42:34","slug":"yale360-co2-is-greening-the-deserts-but-it-is-still-bad-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336959","title":{"rendered":"Yale360: CO2 is Greening the Deserts \u2013 But it is Still Bad News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by Eric Worrall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heads I win, tails you lose\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

With CO2 Levels Rising, World\u2019s Drylands Are Turning Green<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite warnings that climate change would create widespread desertification, many drylands are getting greener because of increased CO2 in the air \u2014 a trend that recent studies indicate will continue. But scientists warn this added vegetation may soak up scarce water supplies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY FRED PEARCE<\/a> \u2022 JULY 16, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Australia is far from alone. From Africa\u2019s Sahel to arid western India, and the deserts of northern China to southern Africa, the story is the same. \u201cGreening is happening in most of the drylands globally, despite increasing aridity,\u201d says Jason Evans, a water-cycle researcher at the Climate Change Research Centre of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is going on? The primary reason, most recent studies conclude, is the 50-percent rise in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere since preindustrial times. This increased C02 is not just driving climate change, but also fast-tracking photosynthesis in plants. By allowing them to use scarce water more efficiently, the CO2-rich air fertilizes vegetation growth in even some of the driest places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The negative impacts of hotter, drier climates have not gone away; but in most arid lands this CO2 fertilization effect is proving more powerful. This supercharging of plant growth seems unlikely to be short-lived if fossil-fuel burning causes atmospheric concentrations of CO2 to continue rising. A new modeling study<\/a>published last month found that it will, if anything, become more marked in the coming decades. \u201cMost of the global drylands are projected to see an increase in vegetation productivity,\u201d says Evans, a coauthor of the study.

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water is not the only potential limiting factor in plant growth in arid lands. The availability of nutrients, particularly nitrogen, is another. That raises questions about whether the benefits of CO2 fertilization will continue to increase. But recent climate modeling suggests that the greening of drylands is unlikely to slow before mid-century and may speed up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So is this all good news? Far from it, ecologists warn. Most obviously, the greening created by agricultural irrigation of fields can play havoc with scarce water reserves and obliterate valuable arid-land ecosystems

\u2026Read more:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/e360.yale.edu\/features\/greening-drylands-carbon-dioxide-climate-change<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What can I say? The climate science prediction that CO2 would cause deserts to expand turns out to be dead wrong \u2013 but it\u2019s still bad news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With CO2 Levels Rising, World\u2019s Drylands Are Turning Green<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":336961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691819134,691818076,691818303],"class_list":{"0":"post-336959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-alarmism","9":"tag-co2","10":"tag-greening","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/05eb2382142952.jpg?fit=1875%2C1250&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1pEP","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":337163,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=337163","url_meta":{"origin":336959,"position":0},"title":"Global Greening Becomes so Obvious That Climate Alarmists Start Arguing We Need to \u201cSave the Deserts\u201d!","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"22\/07\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The world is \u2018greening\u2019 at an astonishing and rapidly growing rate and deserts are shrinking almost everywhere you look. All due, it seems, to a natural rise in carbon \u2018plant food\u2019 dioxide, not forgetting the small annual 4% portion contributed by humans burning hydrocarbons. Inconvenient to the political Net Zero\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide (CO2)\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide (CO2)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Screenshot-2024-07-19-180303.jpeg?fit=1200%2C635&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Screenshot-2024-07-19-180303.jpeg?fit=1200%2C635&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Screenshot-2024-07-19-180303.jpeg?fit=1200%2C635&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Screenshot-2024-07-19-180303.jpeg?fit=1200%2C635&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Screenshot-2024-07-19-180303.jpeg?fit=1200%2C635&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":351997,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=351997","url_meta":{"origin":336959,"position":1},"title":"Tailpipes and Chimneys Greening Gardens and Forests","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"22\/11\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"As CO2 concentrations rise, the water requirement for many plants decreases, making them more tolerant of drought.","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide (CO2)\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide (CO2)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/09d529b_6ae873205cbe440ca5efd27f71a841c9mv2.webp?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/09d529b_6ae873205cbe440ca5efd27f71a841c9mv2.webp?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/09d529b_6ae873205cbe440ca5efd27f71a841c9mv2.webp?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/09d529b_6ae873205cbe440ca5efd27f71a841c9mv2.webp?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/09d529b_6ae873205cbe440ca5efd27f71a841c9mv2.webp?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":340125,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=340125","url_meta":{"origin":336959,"position":2},"title":"From Dust to Green: The Ever-Shifting Sands of Climate Alarmism","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"20\/08\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The irony of the climate alarmists\u2019 narrative is as rich as the verdant deserts they never saw coming. Once upon a time, the world was supposed to be swallowed by an ever-expanding Sahara, with desertification hailed as the \u201cgreatest environmental challenge of our time.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide (CO2)\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide (CO2)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0Earth-greening-scaled-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C763&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0Earth-greening-scaled-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C763&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0Earth-greening-scaled-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C763&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0Earth-greening-scaled-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C763&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0Earth-greening-scaled-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C763&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":337365,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=337365","url_meta":{"origin":336959,"position":3},"title":"Yale Environment 360 Pushes Alarming Carbon Dioxide Story, Despite Beneficial Global Greening","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"23\/07\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A July 16th article published by Yale Environment 360 claims global greening is not a positive, but rather a negative because it will harm water supplies. This claim is at best amusing, and at worst, misleading. While acknowledging that many scientists see the greening of the Earth due to rising\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"climate alarmism\"","block_context":{"text":"climate alarmism","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-alarmism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-BG.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-BG.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-BG.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-BG.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-BG.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":374989,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=374989","url_meta":{"origin":336959,"position":4},"title":"Greening Without CO2? More Selective Science","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"13\/04\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"In their lengthy and data-rich paper,\u00a0Mishra et al. (2025)\u00a0examine the notable \u201cgreening\u201d of India\u2019s Thar Desert from 2001 to 2023. They credit this transformation to a combination of increased monsoon rainfall and human-driven groundwater irrigation. Precipitation is said to contribute 45% to this greening, and groundwater pumping 55%\u200b. While this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-co%e2%82%82"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0desertsgreen.png?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0desertsgreen.png?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0desertsgreen.png?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0desertsgreen.png?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0desertsgreen.png?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":374268,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=374268","url_meta":{"origin":336959,"position":5},"title":"Fresh Evidence Emerges That Global Vegetation Growth Reaches New Highs Due to Increased CO2 Fertilisation","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/04\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Global vegetation reached a new greening peak in 2020, continuing a long-term trend since 2000 according to new dramatic findings published by a team of scientists based in the United States. The work helps confirm other recent scientific work that points to massive global plant growth directly related to recent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-co%e2%82%82"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0birds-eye-view-940711_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0birds-eye-view-940711_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0birds-eye-view-940711_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0birds-eye-view-940711_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0birds-eye-view-940711_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=336959"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336963,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336959\/revisions\/336963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/336961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=336959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=336959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=336959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}