Matt Ridley on why climate change is good for us

Matt Ridley, author of the Rational Optimist, writes in the Spectator why climate change and CO2 in particular are good for us.

 

The increase in average carbon dioxide levels over the past century, from 0.03 per cent to 0.04 per cent of the air, has had a measurable impact on plant growth rates. It is responsible for a startling change in the amount of greenery on the planet. As Dr Ranga Myneni of Boston University has documented, using three decades of satellite data, 31 per cent of the global vegetated area of the planet has become greener and just 3 per cent has become less green. This translates into a 14 per cent increase in productivity of ecosystems and has been observed in all vegetation types.

 

More fact-based assertions are in the article.