Greenhouse planet : how rising CO₂ changes plants and life as we know it / Lewis H. Ziska.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Plants are important : the part about food -- Plants are important : the part about drugs -- Plants are important : the part about religion -- Plants are important : the part about weeds -- Plants are important : the part about art--and allergies -- Science is fundamental -- CO₂ is plant food : the good -- CO₂ is plant food : the bad -- The OMG -- More questions than answers -- The ten-ton T-Rex in the hall closet -- Wait, what? -- Cracks in the system -- Science says -- CO₂ is plant food : the last bit -- A personal note.

""CO₂ is plant food" is a longtime conservative talking point. It's a tricky one because it's not exactly a lie. CO₂ is plant food. But it's more complicated than that. In this book, prominent plant biologist and climate scientist Lewis Ziska explains the complex, mixed results we get when CO₂ in the atmosphere increases. Many crop plants, like rices that much of the world depends on as a staple food, do grow more abundantly under these conditions, but they also become less nutritious. And it turns out that weeds fare even better than other kinds of plants--they flourish and become harder to control. There are many examples like this. Ziska first describes the importance of plants for food, medicine, and culture with the fascination and reverence of someone who has been studying them for decades. Then, he explains the science of what happens to various kinds of plants when atmospheric CO₂ increases (as it currently is). He takes on the "CO₂ is plant food" talking point throughout, and especially in the final section of the book, where he reveals the detrimental effects that politics (including funding decisions) have on scientific research"--