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Plants benefit from extra carbon dioxide

It turns out the increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels has an upside — plants are having a heyday.

A recent study concluded emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from burning fossil fuels has increased, plants around the world have been using 30 percent more CO2, stimulating plant growth.

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Plants take CO2 from the atmosphere to create their food in a process called photosynthesis.

So all the additional CO2 in the atmosphere is essentially creating an all you can eat buffet for anything and everything green — and plants are spreading and growing where they can.

This study is also going to help climate scientists better predict how plants will react to future CO2 emission, and in the end, improve climate change forecasts.

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