Greenhouse Planet : : How Rising CO2 Changes Plants and Life as We Know It / / Lewis H. Ziska.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Columbia University Press Complete eBook-Package 2022
• VerfasserIn: Ziska, Lewis H.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Columbia University Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource :; 22 figures, 6 tables

The carbon dioxide that industrial civilization spews into the atmosphere has dramatic consequences for life on Earth that extend beyond climate change. CO2 levels directly affect plant growth, in turn affecting any kind of life that depends on plants—in other words, everything.Greenhouse Planet reveals the stakes of increased CO2 for plants, people, and ecosystems—from crop yields to seasonal allergies and from wildfires to biodiversity. The veteran plant biologist Lewis H. Ziska describes the importance of plants for food, medicine, and culture and explores the complex ways higher CO2 concentrations alter the systems on which humanity relies. He explains the science of how increased CO2 affects various plant species and addresses the politicization and disinformation surrounding these facts.Ziska confronts the claim that “CO2 is plant food,” a longtime conservative talking point. While not exactly false, it is deeply misleading. CO2 doesn’t just make “good” plants grow; it makes all plants grow. It makes poison ivy more poisonous, kudzu more prolific, cheatgrass more flammable. CO2 stimulates some species more than others: weeds fare particularly well and become harder to control. Many crops grow more abundantly but also become less nutritious. And the further effects of climate change will be formidable.Detailing essential science with wit and panache, Greenhouse Planet is an indispensable book for all readers interested in the ripple effects of increasing CO2.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- PART I A GREEN BLINDNESS -- Chapter One PLANTS ARE IMPORTANT THE PART ABOUT FOOD -- Chapter Two PLANTS ARE IMPORTANT THE PART ABOUT DRUGS -- Chapter Three PLANTS ARE IMPORTANT THE PART ABOUT RELIGION -- Chapter Four PLANTS ARE IMPORTANT THE PART ABOUT WEEDS -- Chapter Five PLANTS ARE IMPORTANT THE PART ABOUT ART—AND ALLERGIES -- PART II PLANTS AND MAGIC -- Chapter Six SCIENCE IS FUNDAMENTAL -- Chapter Seven CO2 IS PLANT FOOD THE GOOD -- Chapter Eight CO2 IS PLANT FOOD THE BAD -- Chapter Nine THE OMG -- PART III CO2 IS PLANT FOOD. NOW WHAT? -- Chapter Ten MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS -- Chapter Eleven THE TEN-TON T. REX IN THE HALL CLOSET -- Chapter Twelve WAIT, WHAT? -- PART IV POLITICS AND PLEAS -- Chapter Thirteen CRACKS IN THE SYSTEM -- Chapter Fourteen SCIENCE SAYS -- Chapter Fifteen CO2 IS PLANT FOOD THE LAST BIT -- Chapter Sixteen A PERSONAL NOTE -- AFTERWORD AND THANKS -- NOTES -- INDEX