Photosynthesis and CO2 Enrichment

The benefits of increased atmospheric CO2 on crops are so extensive that a long article or book needs to be written to do justice to the subject and to the results of thousands of research trials. The improvement in photosynthesis efficiency at higher CO2 levels does not tell the whole story, but it is a good place to start, since all plant growth relies on this process.

Photosynthesis is the process by which plants utilize visible light energy (e.g. sunlight) to convert aerial CO2 and water (from roots) into plant matter. This process also requires phosphorus and nitrogen.

There are three photosynthesis ‘pathways’, known as C3, C4 and CAM. CAM is unimportant for food crops, being the method used by cacti, succulents and agaves. Pineapple is the only food crop of any importance to use CAM, so CAM can be neglected for the present purposes. World food security depends on C3 and C4 photosynthesis.

Less than 1% of all plant species in the world use the C4 photosynthesis pathway. Of the 86 plant species that supply most of the world’s food, only five use the C4 photosynthetic pathway, of which only four are of much importance (corn [=maize], sorghum, millet, and sugarcane) yet these four constitute some 20% of all the food crops grown. Because of their high photosynthetic efficiency, the C4 crops corn and sugarcane are favoured for ethanol production by those who want to produce liquid biofuels rather than food, thus increasing food prices and poverty.

Carbon Capture

Beware the Miliband brothers. Both are ministers of state in the British government. David Miliband, Foreign Secretary, and formerly Secretary of State for the Environment, stated that ‘climate change’ is a greater threat than terrorism, and that those who deny that man is causing climate change should be denied free speech.

People say there should be a debate about global warming. But I tell you the debate is over; the reckoning has begun…and those who deny it are the flat-earthers of the 21^st century.

When we hear that, we know that the issue is no longer one of honest scientific endeavour – it is one of totalitarian control. The Milibands will have been well versed in totalitarian principles, treachery and lies – their father was a notorious Marxist and professor of politics, buried close to Karl Marx in Highgate cemetery, and their grandfather served in the Soviet Red army, a traitor who joined the invading force against his native country, Poland. They both lied to UK immigration officers. A Home Office report of March 8, 1949 states

Miliband, father and son, have so misrepresented the case…we can place no reliance on their statements.

David Miliband’s brother, Ed Miliband, has been granted the ridiculous-sounding portfolio of Energy and Climate Change, and yesterday he legally bound the UK to reduce carbon emissions by 80%. Normally, a government department with a long and cumbersome name is known by its primary business, in this case the Department for Energy, but it has been noticeable that the BBC, an agent very much in the vanguard of promoting liberal political agendas and pseudo-science, has been referring to the government department as the ‘Department of Climate Change’, to the extent that MPs themselves were referring to the minister in the House of Commons yesterday as the ‘Climate Change Minister’. So complete has been the Carbon Capture of our society.

Yesterday, at a meeting of European leaders, when the financial crisis is the worst it has been since the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the ‘Climate Change’ minister committed the government to a highly deleterious policy. In the scale of things, the financial meltdown is only just a little transient difficulty, you see, and politicians must not lose sight of the real issue – climate change. Since the financial ‘fix’ does not seem to be working (which currently affects real lives, real jobs, real property, in real time – not mere hypotheticals), the state postures to appear messianic by making a bold gesture to ‘save the planet’, which will, in fact, make everyone’s lives a great deal worse in the short, medium and long term, and set back the prospects of economic recovery.