I like to think that I am pretty quick on the uptake, but I missed this one. I read years ago that Dr. Sherwood Idso (and many others) had done experiments on plants growing under supplemental CO2. Dr. Idso basically built enclosures around the plants and pumped more CO2 in to the enclosure, simulating much higher levels of the "evil" greenhouse gas, currently at 340 parts per million (ppm) or 0.034% of the atmosphere. These experiments showed that many plants respond to increased levels of CO2 by producing more fruit and more plant matter. In a word, they thrived.
This shouldn't be all that surprising if you run the numbers. Pretty much all life on this planet starts at the bottom of the food chain as photo plankton or land plants and grasses. These convert sunlight, water, and CO2 into plant sugars (biomass), which is eaten by other critters and so on up the food chain. The carbon in the plants comes from the atmosphere, which is only 0.034% of the air we live in and breath. In many cases, plant growth is limited by the low concentration of CO2 in the air.
Commercial plant growers overcome this by adding CO2 to the atmosphere in their greenhouses to make the plants grow faster, better, and healthier. I am not making this up. See this link by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This enrichment raises the ambient CO2 to 1,000 to 1,300 ppm, or nearly 3 to 4 times the 340 ppm currently in the atmosphere.
Dr. Idso has also done experiments demonstrating that a doubling of CO2 will not cause runaway global warming, but may cause warming of only 0.4°C!
Another related topic I have blogged about before is radiation hormesis. An excellent study was inadvertently conducted by the Taiwanese Government.
The following figure was taken from the study:
In this "serendipitous experiment", approximately 10,000 people lived for up to 20 years in buildings that were made with steel contaminated with radioactive Cobalt-60. The figure shows that the chronic radiation received by the residents did not cause excess cancers, but actually resulted in fewer cancer deaths. Thus, the linear no threshold theory (LNT) of radiation carcinogenesis is flatly contradicted by this data.
LNT hypothesizes that there is no safe dose of radiation. Even one ionizing event, LNT says, can cause cancer. This leads to extremely stringent protective regulations regarding exposure to ionizing radiation.
These overweening regulations stoke the fear of radiation in the public and lend support to the anti-nuclear forces calling for the shutdown of all nuclear reactors.
The authors of the Taiwanese study recommend a "reevaluation of the standards, taking into consideration the beneficial as well as the harmful effects of radiation". This would be a great start to reversing the irrational public fear of radiation.
So now, readers of this blog know that we live in a world that is deficient in two critical components in order for life to flourish; CO2 and ionizing radiation. All life on this planet would be healthier, more robust and thriving, if there were more of the two. Now you are armed with the truth - and it shall make you free!
PS. So when you think of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima (or any reactors for that matter), remember what I said to my carpool buddy, Mike. "If people knew about the hormetic effects of ionizing radiation, they would be paying $20 per hour to swim in the spent fuel pools, because the ionizing radiation will make them healthier."
This shouldn't be all that surprising if you run the numbers. Pretty much all life on this planet starts at the bottom of the food chain as photo plankton or land plants and grasses. These convert sunlight, water, and CO2 into plant sugars (biomass), which is eaten by other critters and so on up the food chain. The carbon in the plants comes from the atmosphere, which is only 0.034% of the air we live in and breath. In many cases, plant growth is limited by the low concentration of CO2 in the air.
Commercial plant growers overcome this by adding CO2 to the atmosphere in their greenhouses to make the plants grow faster, better, and healthier. I am not making this up. See this link by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This enrichment raises the ambient CO2 to 1,000 to 1,300 ppm, or nearly 3 to 4 times the 340 ppm currently in the atmosphere.
Dr. Idso has also done experiments demonstrating that a doubling of CO2 will not cause runaway global warming, but may cause warming of only 0.4°C!
Another related topic I have blogged about before is radiation hormesis. An excellent study was inadvertently conducted by the Taiwanese Government.
The following figure was taken from the study:
In this "serendipitous experiment", approximately 10,000 people lived for up to 20 years in buildings that were made with steel contaminated with radioactive Cobalt-60. The figure shows that the chronic radiation received by the residents did not cause excess cancers, but actually resulted in fewer cancer deaths. Thus, the linear no threshold theory (LNT) of radiation carcinogenesis is flatly contradicted by this data.
LNT hypothesizes that there is no safe dose of radiation. Even one ionizing event, LNT says, can cause cancer. This leads to extremely stringent protective regulations regarding exposure to ionizing radiation.
These overweening regulations stoke the fear of radiation in the public and lend support to the anti-nuclear forces calling for the shutdown of all nuclear reactors.
The authors of the Taiwanese study recommend a "reevaluation of the standards, taking into consideration the beneficial as well as the harmful effects of radiation". This would be a great start to reversing the irrational public fear of radiation.
So now, readers of this blog know that we live in a world that is deficient in two critical components in order for life to flourish; CO2 and ionizing radiation. All life on this planet would be healthier, more robust and thriving, if there were more of the two. Now you are armed with the truth - and it shall make you free!
PS. So when you think of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima (or any reactors for that matter), remember what I said to my carpool buddy, Mike. "If people knew about the hormetic effects of ionizing radiation, they would be paying $20 per hour to swim in the spent fuel pools, because the ionizing radiation will make them healthier."
