Rising+CO2+Levels+not+so+good+for+plants?

[|Link] Science News Accessed on April 26th, 2018
 * [[image:http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/photos/780x439/2017/jun/rw-a-tool-for-sustainable-land-use-management-in-rwanda-homepage-780x439.jpg caption="Image of Peruan Farmland"]] ||
 * Link: http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2017/06/06/a-tool-for-sustainable-land-use-management-in-rwanda ||

Though scientists have previously believed that plants can intake rising levels of carbon dioxide, Minnesota studies have shown that widespread plants that grew faster when fed more CO2 have a threshold growth capacity of 12 years. This study indicates that plants may not soak up as much greenhouse gases as previously expected; it was previously believed that land plant intake approximately 1/3 of CO2 emissions but this may not be the complete case. The study shows that for the first 12 years plants' that consume more carbon dioxide using the C3 method growth increased by 20% compared to the control while the plants that grew by the C4 method remained unchanged in it's the significant change of growth. But, for the last eight years in the twenty-year study, the C3 plants decreased their growth by 2% while the C4 plants grew by 24% more. Ecosystem ecologist's such as Peter Reich suggests that the increasing trend of carbon dioxide emissions is something the people must start taking more seriously. The article explains that outside factors such as plant nitrogen levels can impact how much CO2 the plant can convert and moisture levels impact how plants react to CO2 in comparison to growth. But in the meantime, it is important to study the long-term impacts of increasing CO2 levels on plants and it may be time to stop relying on plants to clean the mess we leave behind.
 * __Summary:__ **

__ **Relevance to Course:** __This article relates greatly to one of the largest focuses of AP Environmental Science; it focuses on the issues of climate change and how we have attempted to solve it in the status quo. This article focuses on acknowledging that one of the solutions we currently have to decrease greenhouse gases may not be as effective as we have previously thought. CO2's impact on photosynthesis and plant growth remains far. Just like the article explains, "{Other studies suggest that this} [The] effect varies with different types of plants and in different climate zones."(Miller 507). This article stresses the need for more studies to be done to understand the impacts of CO2 to plant growth.

__ **Opinion:** __I agree that it is necessary for us to understand how CO2 consumption changes and impacts the growth of our plants. In turn, we can understand the amount of CO2 our plants can convert and look for new methods to decreasing CO2 and other greenhouse gases we release. Studies like these help us understand that we need to focus more on increasing green manufacturing and find new methods to clean our gas emissions. __ **Law:** __Montreal Protocol (1987): international agreement to reduce production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances. Goal to cut emissions by 35% between 1989 and 2000. Success story; 85% drop in CFC production from 1988-1998 and sharp drop in production of halons, carbon tetrachloride, & methyl chloroform.