The common sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is a large annual forb of the genus Helianthus. First domesticated in the Americas, sunflower is cultivated across the world for its oil and fruits. Sunflower seeds (the edible fruit) are typically produced and sold as a snack food for human consumption, bird feed, or as livestock forage. Sunflower oil (extracted from the seeds) is commonly used in cooking, but it is also utilized as a biofuel in the emerging biodiesel market. Additionally, sunflowers are cultivated for the production of latex and nonallergenic rubber.

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Most studies of the effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment on Earth’s vegetation have dealt with common terrestrial plants, ranging from grasses to trees, while very few have focused on sizable plants of aquatic realms. This summary reports the results of several research studies that have evaluated the responses of marine macroalgae to elevated levels of atmospheric CO2.

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Nearly all crops respond to increases in the air's CO2 content by displaying enhanced rates of photosynthesis and biomass production; and in this brief review of some recent pertinent papers, we find that tomato is no exception to the rule, even when grown under stressful conditions of fungal infection and high soil salinity.

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Nearly all agricultural species -- including C4 plants -- respond positively to increases in the air’s CO2 content by displaying enhanced rates of photosynthesis and biomass production, as well as higher rates of water use efficiency. This summary reviews some of the impacts of these and other related phenomena as they pertain to the C4 crop species of corn (Zea mays L.), or maize as it is often called.

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Nearly all agricultural species -- including C4 plants -- respond positively to increases in the air’s CO2 content by displaying enhanced rates of photosynthesis and biomass production, as well as higher rates of water use efficiency. This summary reviews some of the impacts of these and other related phenomena as they pertain to the C4 crop species of corn (Zea mays L.), or maize as it is often called.

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The common sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is a large annual forb of the genus Helianthus. First domesticated in the Americas, sunflower is cultivated across the world for its oil and fruits. Sunflower seeds (the edible fruit) are typically produced and sold as a snack food for human consumption, bird feed, or as livestock forage. Sunflower oil (extracted from the seeds) is commonly used in cooking, but it is also utilized as a biofuel in the emerging biodiesel market. Additionally, sunflowers are cultivated for the production of latex and nonallergenic rubber.

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Atmospheric CO2 enrichment typically enhances photosynthesis and biomass production in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under normal growing conditions. But what happens when environmental conditions are less than ideal? This Summary investigates this question as it pertains to the impact of air pollutants on the growth and development of wheat, as learned from a number of scientific studies published on this topic.

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Most of the ocean acidification research conducted to date has focused solely on the biological impacts of declining seawater pH. Fewer studies have investigated the interactive effects of ocean acidification and temperature. This summary examines what has been learned in several of such studies for coral reefs, as reported in various field-based studies on the topic. Contrary to what is widely assumed and reported, the studies reviewed here collectively reveal that many corals will remain unaffected by rising temperatures and atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Furthermore, in contrast to projections, some will likely experience growth and performance benefits.

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Back when the atmosphere’s CO2 concentration was approximately 340 ppm (up from a preindustrial value on the order of 280 ppm), Idso (1982) stated in a small self-published book (Carbon Dioxide: Friend or Foe?) that if the air’s CO2 content continued to climb, it would ultimately enhance plant growth and water use efficiency to the point that semi-arid lands not then suitable for cultivation “could be brought into profitable production,” further stating that “the deserts themselves could ‘blossom as the rose’.” A few years later he advanced essentially the same thesis, but this time in the pages of Nature (Idso, 1986) in a brief paper entitled “Industrial Age Leading to the Greening of the Earth.

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We’ve all seen the concepts acted out on television, heard them reported on the radio, and read about them in newspapers and magazines. We even get them preached to us by our children when they come home from school. Conserve energy. Carpool. Use less water. Recycle. Save the planet. These and other such slogans have become increasingly popular in recent years, as more and more people have become convinced that our world and its life-sustaining support systems are seriously threatened by the ever-increasing numbers of our species. As a result, protecting the environment has become a key consideration in almost all that we do; for it is put forth as a self-evident fact that being good to the earth is the only way to ensure that our children and grandchildren will inherit a world that provides equal or greater opportunities and resources than that in which we now live.

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As the air’s CO2 content rises in response to ever-increasing anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and as more and more carbon dioxide therefore dissolves in the surface waters of the world’s oceans, theoretical reasoning suggests the pH values of the planet’s oceanic waters should be gradually dropping. The IPCC and others postulate that this chain of events, commonly referred to as ocean acidification, will cause great harm -- and possibly death -- to marine life in the decades and centuries to come. However, as ever more pertinent evidence accumulates, a much more optimistic viewpoint is emerging. This summary examines the topic of the potential impacts of ocean acidification on echinoderms.

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Nearly all agricultural crops respond to increases in the air's CO2 content by displaying enhanced rates of photosynthesis and biomass production. In this brief summary, we review the results of some of the studies that have evaluated these effects and the effects of climate-model predicted changes in air temperature, precipitation and ozone pollution on peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) plants.

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Coccolithophores are single-celled algae and protists that are found throughout the surface euphotic zones of the world’s oceans. They contain chlorophyll, conduct photosynthesis and possess special plates or scales known as coccoliths, which they create via the process of calcification. This summary briefly reviews the results of several studies investigating how coccolithophores may be affected by ocean acidification in a CO2-enriched world of the future. As indicated below, the findings of these several works challenge the alarmist view of ocean acidification espoused by the IPCC and others. Instead of experiencing great harm in response to future declines in oceanic pH predicted for the future, coccolithophores will likely adapt and possible even thrive under such changes.

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A number of people are concerned that Earth's temperature will rise so high and so fast in response to CO2-induced global warming that many alpine plant and animal species will soon be mere memories, because of the assumption that after being forced to migrate to the tops of the mountains upon which they now reside at lower levels, there will be nowhere else for them to go in a vertical direction but to the sorry state of extinction.

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Periodically, individual scientists and groups of scientists analyze global sets of sea level data to see if there is any indication of a dramatic increase in the mean rate-of-rise of the global ocean surface in response to the supposedly unprecedented warming of the planet over the course of the 20th century and the initial phase of the 21st century, which latter phenomenon the world's climate alarmists claim should be accelerating global sea level rise and leading to catastrophic coastal flooding throughout the world. Hence, we here provide a brief summary of the findings of several such studies that we have reviewed over the past several years.

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Noting that Antarctic sea ice may show high sensitivity to any anthropogenic-induced increase in temperature, Watkins and Simmonds (2000)1 analyzed temporal trends in different measures of the sea ice that surrounds Antarctica, using Special Sensor Microwave Imager data obtained from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program for the nine-year period December 1987-December 1996, in search of the suspected signal. But contrary to what one would expect on the basis of climate model simulations, and especially in light of what climate alarmists of the day described as the unprecedented warming of the past quarter-century, the two scientists observed statistically significant increases in both sea ice area and extent; and when they combined their results with those of the preceding nine-year period (1978-1987), both parameters continued to show increases over that expanded time period. In addition, they found that the 1990s also experienced increases in the length of the sea-ice season.

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Most of the ocean acidification research conducted to date has focused solely on the biological impacts of declining seawater pH. Fewer studies have investigated the interactive effects of ocean acidification and temperature. This summary examines what has been learned in several of such studies for coral reefs, as reported in various laboratory-based studies on the topic. Contrary to what is widely assumed and reported, the studies reviewed here collectively reveal that many corals will remain unaffected by rising temperatures and atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Furthermore, in contrast to projections, some will likely experience growth and performance benefits.

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In agricultural enterprises the buildup of soil salinity from repeated irrigations can sometimes reduce crop yields. Similarly, in unmanaged ecosystems where exposure to brackish or salty water is commonplace, saline soils can induce growth stresses in plants that are not naturally adapted to coping with this problem. Consequently, it is important to understand how rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations may interact with soil salinity to affect plant growth; and in the paragraphs that follow, we summarize the results of a number of experiments that were designed to obtain knowledge pertinent to this endeavor.

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Is the human-induced increase in the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide concentration good or bad for the earth and its inhabitants? A number of scientists who base their opinions primarily on the predictions of climate models vociferously claim that it’s bad. Other scientists, who base their opinions primarily on real-world weather measurements and historical proxy temperature reconstructions, along with the known positive effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment on terrestrial plant growth and development, as well as its benign effects on aquatic plants and animals, are equally adamant that it’s good.

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Near the start of the current century, Holland (2001)1 wrote that with respect to contemporary state-of-the-art global climate models, "some physical processes are absent from the models," while noting that in light of the coarse-resolution grids employed by the models, "some physical processes are ill resolved" and that others are actually "missing from the simulations," which facts led him to question, as he put it, "whether the simulations obtained from such models are in fact physically meaningful." And so it was that he thus went on to conduct his own analysis of the subject, which he designed to determine the difference in model evolution of sea ice cover using a relatively coarse-resolution grid verses a fine-resolution grid, with specific emphasis placed on the presence and treatment of a mesoscale ocean eddy and its influence on sea ice cover.

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