The Daily Sceptic article argues that rising atmospheric CO2 levels, currently at 420 parts per million (ppm), have driven a global "greening" effect, with trees growing larger and vegetation increasing by over 15% in the last 40 years. Citing experiments like the Birmingham Institute's FACE study and others, it suggests CO2 acts as a natural fertiliser, boosting photosynthesis and biomass while sequestering significant carbon. This phenomenon, it claims, represents a negative feedback mechanism, where increased plant growth absorbs more CO2, potentially stabilising atmospheric levels, that IPCC climate models undervalue.
The article's claim of a 15%-plus increase in global vegetation over the last 40 years is supported by multiple studies. A 2016 paper by 32 authors from eight countries, published in Nature Climate Change, reported a "persistent and widespread increase" in growing-season greening over 25–50% of global vegetated areas since the 1980s, attributed primarily to CO2 fertilisation. Satellite data from 1982–2015 show greening in Europe, central Africa, southeast Asia, and parts of the Amazon, with less than 4% of areas showing "browning" (vegetation decline).
The Birmingham Institute's FACE experiment, conducted since 2017 in a 180-year-old oak forest, found that elevating CO2 to 550 ppm increased tree growth by 10% and photosynthesis by up to 33%, particularly under strong sunlight.
Similarly, a Duke University FACE study in a North Carolina pine forest showed a 27% growth increase and up to 50% higher photosynthetic rates with an additional 200 ppm CO2. A 2022 Ohio State University study reported a 20–30% increase in U.S. forest biomass from 1970–2015, sequestering 700–800 million tons of CO2 annually, equivalent to 10–13% of U.S. emissions.
These findings align with the biological principle that CO2, a key input for photosynthesis, enhances plant growth when other resources (water, nutrients) are sufficient. Plants evolved under CO2 levels up to 20 times higher than today's 420 ppm, with a pre-industrial low of 280 ppm nearing the 150 ppm threshold for plant survival. CO2 fertilisation also improves water-use efficiency, making plants more drought-resistant, as seen in reduced desertification in the southern Sahara.
A negative feedback mechanism reduces the magnitude of a system's change, in this case, rising atmospheric CO2. Enhanced plant growth sequesters more CO2 into biomass and soil, potentially slowing atmospheric CO2 accumulation. The Ohio State study estimates U.S. forests alone offset 10–13% of national emissions, while global forests absorb about 7.6 billion tons of CO2 annually, roughly a fifth of human emissions (36 billion tons in 2019). A 2019 study led by Jean-Francois Bastin estimated that 0.9 billion hectares of new forest could store 205 gigatons of carbon, offsetting about 20 years of current emissions.
The Daily Sceptic argues that IPCC models underestimate this feedback, focusing on CO2's warming effects while ignoring its fertilisation benefits. This claim has merit: early IPCC models (e.g., AR4, 2007) gave less attention to CO2 fertilization due to uncertainties about nutrient limitations and long-term effects. Newer models, like those in AR6 (2021), incorporate dynamic vegetation modules that attempt to account for CO2-driven growth, but with conservative estimates indicating their limitations.
The article's sceptical tone critiques Net Zero policies, like the UK's £22 billion carbon capture scheme, as misguided given natural sequestration via greening. It also suggests mainstream media and IPCC narratives overemphasise CO2's harms while ignoring benefits like increased crop yields (e.g., 25–54% for barley at 700 ppm CO2) and de-desertification.
CO2 fertilisation has driven significant global greening, with a 15%+ increase in vegetation and enhanced tree growth, acting as a negative feedback mechanism that sequesters 10–20% of human CO2 emissions. This throws a large spanner in the climate change alarmist machine.
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/06/25/trees-get-bigger-around-the-world-thanks-to-higher-co2-levels/
"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's bountiful plant food, has led to bigger trees and more leaf growth over the last few decades. The recent small recovery in the near-denuded level of CO2 that was a threat to plant and human life on Earth has led to an astonishing 15%-plus increase in overall global vegetation growth in the last 40 years. Plants including trees have evolved to thrive in levels of atmospheric CO2 about three times higher than the current 420 parts per million (ppm) and scientific evidence is clearly showing rising levels are leading to faster growth in flora that is both healthier and more resistant to nature's hazards such as drought.
Fascinating results are starting to emerge from a controlled Free-Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) experiment conducted since 2017 by the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research. This involved increasing CO2 levels to 550 ppm across patches of a 180-year old Oak forest in Staffordshire, England. When compared to controlled plots without the CO2 boost, it was found that oaks fed with the extra plant food showed growth rates that were an astonishing 10% higher in the period 2017-2023. Most of the growth is attributed to wood production. Compared to trees making do with the current 420 ppm, the boosted oaks are estimated to have produced an additional 1.7 tonnes of dry matter per hectare per year.
Early results also show that mature oak trees increased their photosynthesis rate by up to 33% due to the elevated CO2 levels, particularly in strong sunlight. Capture of CO2 by wood rather than leaves means the sequestration will be longer lasting. The carbon-nitrogen ratio in leaves remained stable and this suggests the trees adapt easily by redirecting nutrients or absorbing more nitrogen from the soil. Of course these results illustrate that sequestration of CO2 is a natural process and it has been ongoing for at least 600 million years. Much higher levels of CO2, for which there is no evidence of a causal link with runaway temperatures, have been gradually reduced with a recent low point of 280 ppm in the pre-industrial age, skirting with ecological disaster at the dead-planet level of around 150 ppm.
FACE experiments are not new and have been used to assess CO2 growth rates in trees in a number of locations. A long-term project in the Duke pine forest in Orange County, North Carolina found higher annual growth of 27% when trees were fumigated with another 200 ppm dose of CO2. In this case, photosynthetic rates by canopy foliage increased by up to 50% while the actual size of the trees, or the basal area increment, was stimulated by between 13-27%.
It seems that wherever you look, gluttonous trees around the world have been bulking up on CO2 at both existing levels and those set in experiments. A recent article published by a group of researchers working out of Ohio State University found that over the last 50 years in 10 forest groups, all types except Aspen Birch increased their per-hectare volume. Between 1970 and 2015, trees produced a 20-30% increase in biomass compared to trees from 30 years prior. The study suggested that all those porky pines and poplars were sequestering about 700-800 million tons of CO2 a year in the US, equivalent to roughly 10-13% of the country's total CO2 emissions.
If running scared of CO2 is your political thing, this news should be most welcome. Tree planting is all the virtuous rage to justify elite 'business-as-usual' lifestyles, but the heavy and natural greening of the planet is not generally mentioned in polite mainstream society. Carbon dioxide is seen as a 'devil gas' and the need to promote the Net Zero fantasy leads to an odd and skewed understanding of its benefits. In the UK, this has led to the Mad Miliband setting up a ridiculous scheme to 'capture' pitiful amounts of CO2 and lock it up for ever more at a cost of £22 billion.
At least regular readers of the Daily Sceptic are not remaining uninformed about the staggering amounts of vegetation growth and de-desertification that is occurring as CO2 levels show a small recovery from the near-death experience in recent historical times. Recently, two scientists in Spain found a "striking" growth in global greening. A significant portion of Earth's terrestrial land surface was said to show a measurable increase in vegetation cover over the last four decades. Meanwhile, crop yields have soared in the last 60 years helped by hydrocarbon-produced fertiliser and increased CO2, while deserts are reducing in places such as the southern Sahara. While kids in the Western world are sent to bed crying with their brainwashed heads full of Attenborough-style agitprop, at least many children in less developed parts of the world have slightly fuller bellies."