Tipsheet

A New Incovenient Truth?

It seems the planet has an uncanny ability to adapt to changing climate conditions, and that humanity may have a much harder time killing Mother Earth than the alarmists warn:

World's forests can adapt to climate change, study says

Water shortages as a result of rising temperatures will not do as much damage as feared, evidence from ancient trees suggests

It is generally acknowledged that a warming world will harm the world's forests. Higher temperatures mean water becomes more scarce, spelling death for plants – or perhaps not always.

According to a study of ancient rainforests, trees may be hardier than previously thought. Carlos Jaramillo, a scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), examined pollen from ancient plants trapped in rocks in Colombia and Venezuela. "There are many climactic models today suggesting that … if the temperature increases in the tropics by a couple of degrees, most of the forest is going to be extinct," he said. "What we found was the opposite to what we were expecting: we didn't find any extinction event [in plants] associated with the increase in temperature, we didn't find that the precipitation decreased."