In the heated debate over climate change, carbon dioxide (CO₂) is often cast as the villain, a gas responsible for warming the planet and threatening ecosystems. Yet, this narrative overlooks a fundamental truth: CO₂ is the lifeblood of plant growth, driving photosynthesis and fuelling the regreening of our planet. Vijay Jayaraj's July 21, 2025, article highlights the "fruitful" benefits of rising CO₂ levels, particularly for fruit crops, and challenges the anti-CO₂ dogma that dominates public discourse. From a perspective that embraces the scientific role of CO₂ as a plant nutrient, this discussion argues that increasing atmospheric CO₂, alongside modest warming, has led to significant agricultural and ecological benefits, including enhanced crop yields, improved nutrition, and a greener Earth. Far from being a catastrophe, CO₂'s rise is a boon for global food security and environmental health.
The Science of CO₂ as Plant Food
CO₂ is not just a greenhouse gas; it's a critical ingredient in photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight, water, and CO₂ into sugars and oxygen. Higher atmospheric CO₂ levels enhance photosynthetic efficiency, allowing plants to grow faster, produce more biomass, and often improve their nutritional content. Current CO₂ levels, around 430 parts per million (ppm), are significantly higher than the 280 ppm of the pre-industrial era but remain well below the optimal levels for many plants, which thrive at 800–1,200 ppm in controlled environments like greenhouses.
Jayaraj's article cites compelling evidence of CO₂'s benefits. A 2022 study confirmed the "fertilisation effect of CO₂" on fruit species, noting that elevated CO₂ increases photosynthesis, leading to higher yields, better flavour, and enhanced nutritional content, including vitamins C, E, and precursors to vitamin A. For example, tomatoes grown in greenhouses with CO₂ levels of 1,000 ppm show up to an 80% increase in yield. Similarly, crops like strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and members of the gourd family (cucumbers, melons, squash) exhibit improved growth, sugar content, and resilience to environmental stresses like drought and waterlogging when CO₂ levels are elevated.
These findings are not limited to Earth. A study on leafy greens for space cultivation found that CO₂ levels of 1,500–3,000 ppm boosted growth and vitamin content in crops like lettuce, bok choy, kale, and mustard. This suggests that CO₂'s benefits extend beyond terrestrial agriculture, potentially supporting food production in extreme environments like space colonies.
CO₂ and the Regreening of the Planet
Beyond agriculture, rising CO₂ levels have contributed to a global regreening effect, countering claims of ecological collapse due to climate change. Satellite data from NASA, published in a 2016 study, revealed that Earth's vegetated areas have increased by an area equivalent to two times the size of the mainland United States between 1986 and 2016, with 25–50% of this greening attributed to CO₂ fertilisation. Forests, grasslands, and croplands across regions like the Sahel, India, and China have seen significant increases in leaf area index, a measure of vegetation density.
This regreening has profound implications. Enhanced plant growth sequesters more carbon, mitigating CO₂'s atmospheric impact while boosting biodiversity and soil health. In arid regions, CO₂ fertilisation improves water-use efficiency, allowing plants to thrive with less water, a critical advantage as global populations grow. For instance, a 2013 study in Nature Climate Change found that CO₂-driven greening in drylands has helped stabilise ecosystems, reducing desertification risks.
Fruit crops, as Jayaraj notes, are particularly sensitive to CO₂ and temperature changes. The warming since the Little Ice Age (1300–1850) has extended growing seasons, with the U.S. season lengthening by over two weeks since the early 20th century. This reduces frost risks, allowing orchard growers to plant more frequently and achieve higher yields. In contrast, historical cold periods devastated fruit production, China abandoned orange cultivation in Jiangxi Province, and apple and pear trees in temperate zones struggled with erratic temperatures. Today's warmer climate and higher CO₂ levels have reversed these challenges, enabling fruit crops to flourish globally.
The Anti-CO₂ Narrative: A Misguided Crusade
The anti-CO₂ narrative, often driven by political and ideological agendas, ignores these benefits and frames CO₂ as an existential threat. This perspective has led to policies aimed at drastically reducing emissions, sometimes at the expense of economic growth and food security. Critics of CO₂, as Jayaraj points out, risk professional ostracism for highlighting its benefits, with scientists facing blacklisting or job loss for challenging the mainstream view. This stifles open debate and obscures the reality that CO₂ is not a pollutant but a vital component of the biosphere.
The fear-driven narrative also overlooks historical context. During the Little Ice Age, cold temperatures and low CO₂ levels (around 280 ppm) limited plant growth, contributing to famines and agricultural collapse in regions like Iceland and alpine Europe. Today's CO₂ levels, while higher, are still below the geological norm, Earth's atmosphere has seen CO₂ concentrations of 1,000–2,000 ppm during periods of lush vegetation, such as the Cretaceous. The current increase, largely from industrial activity, has brought CO₂ closer to levels that plants evolved to thrive in, unlocking their potential without reaching toxic thresholds for humans or ecosystems.
Opponents of the CO₂-as-beneficial argument often point to warming-related risks, such as extreme weather or sea-level rise, as reasons to curb emissions. They argue that unchecked CO₂ increases could disrupt agriculture through heatwaves, droughts, or floods. However, these concerns must be weighed against the tangible benefits of CO₂ fertilisation and warming. For instance, Jayaraj cites the 2007 freeze in 21 U.S. states, which caused $112 million in damages to fruit crops in North Carolina alone. Cold weather remains a greater threat to agriculture than warmth, and developing cold-hardy crop varieties, as suggested, is a practical response to future cooling risks, which paleoclimatology suggests are inevitable.
Another counterargument is that CO₂'s benefits are uneven, with some regions or crops potentially facing challenges from warming. While true that specific crops or areas may require adaptation, the global trend of increased agricultural productivity, global crop yields have risen by over 20% since the 1980s, partly due to CO₂, suggests that the net effect is positive. Biotechnology, irrigation improvements, and precision agriculture further enhance resilience, mitigating localised risks.
The evidence of CO₂'s benefits calls for a reevaluation of climate policies that demonise the gas. From a perspective prioritising food security and ecological health, aggressive decarbonisation efforts, such as those pushing for net-zero emissions, may harm agriculture by limiting CO₂ availability. For example, reducing CO₂ to pre-industrial levels could reverse greening trends, threatening crop yields and biodiversity. Instead, policies should balance emissions management with the recognition that CO₂ is a plant nutrient, not a pollutant.
Australia, with its vast agricultural sector, stands to benefit significantly from CO₂ fertilisation. Crops like citrus, grapes, and stone fruits, which thrive in warmer climates, could see sustained yield increases, supporting rural economies. However, policies driven by anti-CO₂ sentiment, such as carbon taxes or restrictions on fossil fuel-based fertilisers, could raise farming costs and undermine these gains. A pragmatic approach would invest in agricultural innovation, such as cold-hardy genotypes or CO₂-enhanced greenhouses, while avoiding knee-jerk emission cuts that ignore CO₂'s role in feeding a growing global population.
The anti-CO₂ mania sweeping global policy circles overlooks the undeniable benefits of rising CO₂ levels: enhanced crop yields, improved nutrition, and a regreening planet. Vijay Jayaraj's article underscores how fruit crops, from tomatoes to strawberries, are thriving thanks to CO₂ fertilisation and modest warming, a trend supported by decades of scientific research. The global greening effect, driven by CO₂, has transformed arid regions, boosted biodiversity, and supported food security, challenging the narrative of climate catastrophe.
Rather than vilifying CO₂, we should celebrate its role as a catalyst for a greener, more fruitful Earth. Policymakers must reject fear-driven agendas and embrace evidence-based approaches that harness CO₂'s benefits while addressing genuine environmental challenges. For Australia and the world, the path forward lies in recognising CO₂ not as an enemy but as a vital ally in sustaining life and prosperity.
Let a thousand coal-fired power stations bloom!
https://amgreatness.com/2025/07/21/the-fruitful-results-of-increasing-co%e2%82%82/
The 'Fruitful' Results of Increasing CO₂
Despite the taboo, rising CO₂ and warming temps have helped fruit crops flourish—boosting yields, nutrition, and resilience from North Carolina to outer space.
Among the climatically correct, nothing is more scandalous than describing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions as beneficial. You can be blacklisted from public forums and professional networking sites and even be removed from your tenured university position as an accomplished scientist.
Nonetheless, the truth is this: CO₂ is fundamental to the photosynthetic process by which plants make food for themselves, and ultimately for us. Furthermore, the increase in atmospheric CO₂ from industrial activity in the past century has helped vegetation over most of the planet to flourish. Also benefiting plants has been the relative warmth of recent decades.
Among the beneficiaries are fruit plants, whose sensitivity to cold is well established. In April 2007, an unseasonable freeze caused considerable low-temperature injury to small fruit plants, including grapes, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries, in 21 U.S. states. The financial repercussions for the agricultural sector were substantial. In North Carolina alone, farming losses were estimated to be $112 million, including $86 million in damages to fruit crops.
During the Little Ice Age (1300–1850), many of the fruit crops faced significant challenges from low temperatures, shorter growing seasons, and extreme weather events like frosts, heavy rains, and drought.
In Iceland and high alpine areas, agriculture nearly collapsed. In China's Jiangxi Province, centuries-old orange cultivation was abandoned due to cold. In temperate zones, apple and pear trees struggled with erratic temperatures, causing irregular blooming and lower yields.
Fast forward 175 years or so, and we have fruit crops thriving globally, thanks to elevated CO₂ levels, relative warmth, and a series of innovations in plant biotechnology. Regardless of whether certain politicians or news media believe it or not, plants love the warmer temperatures and increasing carbon dioxide of our season of plenty.
Rising temperatures extend growing seasons by delaying autumn frosts and advancing spring thaws, allowing more plantings and reducing late-spring frost risks for orchard growers. The U.S. growing season has lengthened by over two weeks since the early 20th century.
A 2022 study led scientists to conclude that there is no doubt about the "fertilisation effect of CO₂" on fruit species, which also benefit from natural warming as Earth recovers from the Little Ice Age.
"Growing crops under elevated CO₂ can increase photosynthesis and result in an increase in yield, flavor, and nutritional content, including but not limited to Vitamins C and E" and compounds that can be converted to Vitamin A, concludes a 2023 study.
Some fruit plants benefit more than others. Tomatoes, for instance, show an astounding 80% increase in yield when CO₂ in greenhouses is elevated to 1,000 parts per million (ppm), which is well above the ambient atmospheric level of 430 ppm.
The gourd family of crops, like cucumber, melon, and squash, all show increased yield or nutritional value with elevated CO₂. Blueberries and raspberries likewise show a positive response to higher CO₂. Strawberries exhibit increased yield and quality, including improved levels of dry matter content, fructose, glucose, and total sugar. In Colombia, fruit trees, such as citrus, grapevines, papaya, and pitaya, benefited from elevated CO₂'s effect of alleviating the stress of both drought and waterlogging.
The magic of CO₂ can even unlock new possibilities in space exploration. A scientific study, which was aimed at understanding the suitability of leafy green crops for space cultivation, found that elevated CO₂ (1,500–3,000 ppm) increased growth and yield in certain types of lettuce, bok choy, kale, and mustard, with many showing higher levels of Vitamins C and B1.
Plant biologists believe that fruit yields can be further increased with adjustments to other factors like nitrogen content, genotypic choices, and application of agricultural technologies.
In the meantime, it probably makes sense to work on making fruit crops more resilient to low temperatures by developing cold-hardy fruit genotypic varieties, as eventual global cooling is a greater risk to food supplies than the warmth of today's climate.
In any case, there is no doubt that, from a horticultural perspective, currently rising levels of CO₂ have proven, well, fruitful.
Vijay Jayaraj is a Science and Research Associate at the CO₂ Coalition, Fairfax, Virginia. He holds an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, both in the U.K., and a bachelor's in engineering from Anna University, India."