Greenhouse Planet

COb2(B is plant food" is a longtime conservative talking point. It's a tricky one because it's not exactly a lie. COb2(B is plant food. But it's more complicated than that. In this book, prominent plant biologist and climate scientist Lewis Ziska explains the complex, mixed results we get when COb2(B in the atmosphere increases. Many crop plants, like rices that much of the world depends on as a staple food, do grow more abundantly under these conditions, but they also become less nutritious. Andit turns out that weeds fare even better than other kinds of plants--they flourish and become harder to control. There are many examples like this. Ziska first describes the importance of plants for food, medicine, and culture with the fascination and reverence of someone who has been studying them for decades. Then, he explains the science of what happens to various kinds of plants when atmospheric COb2(B increases (as it currently is). He takes on the "COb2(B is plant food" talking point throughout, and especially in the final section of the book, where he reveals the detrimental effects that politics (including funding decisions) have on scientific research"--