eli5: If plants and trees thrive on Carbon dioxide, and humans are producing more carbon dioxide, does that mean vegetation is benefiting from greenhouse gases? If not, how come?

Question

eli5: If plants and trees thrive on Carbon dioxide, and humans are producing more carbon dioxide, does that mean vegetation is benefiting from greenhouse gases? If not, how come?

In: 102

Answer 1

Kinda sorta. Yes, we can actually measure that trees produce more biomass in summer, for instance, iirc. That is due to the additional availability of CO2. Kind of the same for some algae blooms. However, the higher evaporation, lower surface availability of water and just the rising temperatures themselves in summer more than offset the benefits. To put it short. Wet places are getting somewhat more lush, but more places become arid.