{"id":406435,"date":"2025-10-03T14:39:54","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T12:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=406435"},"modified":"2025-10-03T14:39:56","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T12:39:56","slug":"yes-nbc-news-trees-in-the-amazon-benefit-from-higher-carbon-dioxide-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=406435","title":{"rendered":"Yes, NBC News, Trees in the Amazon Benefit from Higher Carbon Dioxide Levels"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Dense<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By H. Sterling Burnett<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

NBC News is reporting on a new study which found that the Amazon rain forest is benefitting from increased carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere. The findings of the study, while informative, are unsurprising. Multiple studies have confirmed what agronomists, botanists, and farmers and greenhouse operators have long known, that higher CO2 makes plants grow faster, stronger, and more lushly, and as a result, recent increases in CO2 have is contributed to a general greening of the Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NBC New story, \u201cGiant trees of the Amazon get taller as forests fatten up on carbon dioxide<\/a>,\u201d reports on a study published in the journal Nature Plants<\/a> which found trees in the Amazon were growing larger and, when undisturbed by deforestation, increasing in number due to rising atmospheric CO2 levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe giants of the Amazon are getting even bigger,\u201d says NBC News. \u201cA sweeping, new study has found the rainforest\u2019s largest trees are not only holding their ground, but they\u2019re thriving \u2014 growing, multiplying in number and continuing to play a major role in mitigating the impacts of climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study, which included participation by more than 100 researchers from more than 60 universities and research institutes in Brazil, Bolivia, Columbia, and the United Kingdom, among other countries, tracked changes across 188 plots in the Amazonian rainforest for more than 30 years. It found, in the words of the study, \u201ctrees have become larger over time, with mean tree basal area increasing by 3.3% per decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLarger trees have increased in both number and size, yet we observed similar rates of relative size gain in large and small trees,\u201d said the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As NBC News admits, the researchers explicitly credit the increasing amounts of atmospheric CO2 concentrations from the use of coal, natural gas, and oil for energy for increased tree growth (in both size and number) across the Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was an understanding that big trees were \u2018expected to be vulnerable to climate change,\u2019 Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, one of the study\u2019s lead authors, told NBC News . . .. \u2018What we see here is actually they seem to be showing quite a resilience.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018We\u2019re not seeing signs of them dying off,\u2019 said Esquivel-Muelbert [continued], . . . . \u2018They are increasing in size and number as well.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s puzzling why Esquivel-Mulbert and her co-authors were surprised at their findings \u2013 why they thought trees in the Amazon would be \u201cvulnerable,\u201d to climate change. Perhaps, it\u2019s because they relied on climate model projections concerning climate change impacts, rather than long-term knowledge, thousands of studies and experiments<\/a>, and hundreds of reports detailing the benefits of higher CO2 for plants. There is no logical reason for believing trees in the Amazon would behave any differently or benefit any less from CO2 increases than other plants do and have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As detailed in\u00a0Climate at a Glance: Global Greening<\/a>\u00a0and in dozens of previous\u00a0Climate Realism<\/a><\/em>\u00a0posts, Data from NASA show and multiple studies confirm that the area of leaf coverage and plant life on Earth as increased by as much or more than 10 percent between 2000 and 2020 alone, with studies showing a similar increase since 1982. This measured increase in plant life covered nearly all parts of the globe, including the Amazon basin, having even contributed to a shrinking of the Sahara Desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The large scale survey of the literature by the Non-governmental International Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts<\/a>, examines in detail the biological basis for CO2\u2019s beneficial impacts on plant and animal life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of today\u2019s plants evolved during geologic periods of time ago when CO2 levels were higher than today and are benefiting now from the recovery from glacial CO2 levels that neared the minimal limits needed for continued photosynthesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBC News is to be credited for publishing good news about treen growth in the Amazon, a rare admission of the benefits of climate change amid the normal \u201cclimate change causes everything bad\u201d narrative, that the media outlet normally pushes. Global climate change is benefitting plant life, which, as this new study shows, extends to trees in the Amazon. This is great news in the face of waxing and waning but nearly continuous deforestation there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

NBC News is reporting on a new study which found that the Amazon rain forest is benefitting from increased carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere. The findings of the study, while informative, are unsurprising. Multiple studies have confirmed what agronomists, botanists, and farmers and greenhouse operators have long known, that higher CO2 makes plants grow faster, stronger, and more lushly, and as a result, recent increases in CO2 have is contributed to a general greening of the Earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":406439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[691838503,691829997,691818056,691822252,691827694],"class_list":["post-406435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amazon-rain-forest","tag-carbon-dioxide-co","tag-climate-change","tag-global-greening","tag-nbc-news","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQMuzFkDDiGnl_o2-pm5az3eSTUEnPTjn47hzeKxbHc-D5o1bnr-2r_nAadcC_0NNVwKiM20vKkp5gVoO1z_s7Ah-goHJlgrxI517IVRZKYWrIT8sXlRVvT1Wq5MoZ_f-1.png?fit=810%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1HJp","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":385166,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=385166","url_meta":{"origin":406435,"position":0},"title":"Trees Get Bigger Around the World Thanks to Higher CO2 Levels","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/26\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Recent scientific investigation, curiously missing from constant mainstream media reports of ecological Armageddon, confirms that trees are getting larger around the world due to higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide fertilisation. A little extra of the gas of life, nature\u2019s bountiful plant food, has led to bigger trees and more\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\/06\/0Screenshot-2025-06-06-105822-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C753&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0Screenshot-2025-06-06-105822-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C753&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0Screenshot-2025-06-06-105822-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C753&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0Screenshot-2025-06-06-105822-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C753&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0Screenshot-2025-06-06-105822-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C753&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":351997,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=351997","url_meta":{"origin":406435,"position":1},"title":"Tailpipes and Chimneys Greening Gardens and Forests","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/22\/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":406451,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=406451","url_meta":{"origin":406435,"position":2},"title":"The Amazon\u2019s \u201cCO\u2082 Problem\u201d? 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