Nature's Robust Nature

Vera Prescott: I hate trees. They suck up all the oxygen.
Brantley Foster: Actually, trees produce oxygen.
Vera Prescott: Who are you? Mr Wizard?
--The Secret of My Success

One bothersome aspect of the 'global warming' thesis is that it does not seem to adequately account for the robustness of nature. Nature has capacity for coping with a variety of situations and balance them out.

For example, people breathe in oxygen and exhale CO2 as a product of respiration. Plants, on the other hand, take in CO2 and release oxygen as part of photosynthesis.

In a global warming thesis predicated on the adverse effects of excess C02 generated by man-made processes, how much of those adverse effects might be attenuated by the absorptive capacity of plants with respect to CO2?

If plants have more CO2 absorptive capacity than they currently utilize, then perhaps increased CO2 concentrations in the air motivate more photosynthesis which in turn would attenuate adverse consequences of CO2 produced by man. In the short term, some excess atmospheric CO2 may be eliminated. In the long term, more photosynthesis might increase global flora for additional CO2 absorptive capacity and other yield benefits.

The ability of nature to absorb more CO2 might help explain why results of most models have over-predicted temperature effects to date.

The miracle of nature is not delicate fragility, but rather its robustness--its adaptive capacity to a wide range of circumstances.