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

I am sure you have seen that we have a new environmental issue, algae growth.

There many lakes and more or less stagnant part of rivers that algae starts to force out some flora and fauna.

On the other hand, elevated CO2 causes elevated temperatures, which is bad for plants too. So more “food” but less habitability for plants. Back to algae, they are not as sensitive to temperature changes.