![]() ![]() The idea that more carbon dioxide will "green the world" has been endlessly promoted by the fossil fuel industry and its friends. Ruth DeFries, cofounding dean, Columbia Climate School, and author of What Would Nature Do? A Guide for Our Uncertain Times Fun to read and completely accessible, this book will help both scientists and nonscientists deepen their knowledge about the far-ranging effects of our changing atmosphere on the plants that underpin our very survival. More poisonous poison ivy, creeping kudzu, super weeds, and protein-deprived bees are some of the nuances that shatter the simplistic talking point. Ziska unpacks the science and politics of the climate-denying mantra that carbon dioxide feeds plants and greens the planet. Greenhouse Planet is not just another book about climate change. Detailing essential science with wit and panache, Greenhouse Planet is an indispensable book for all readers interested in the ripple effects of increasing CO2. And the further effects of climate change will be formidable. Many crops grow more abundantly but also become less nutritious. CO2 stimulates some species more than others: weeds fare particularly well and become harder to control. It makes poison ivy more poisonous, kudzu more prolific, cheatgrass more flammable. CO2 doesn’t just make “good” plants grow it makes all plants grow. While not exactly false, it is deeply misleading. Ziska confronts the claim that “CO2 is plant food,” a longtime conservative talking point. He explains the science of how increased CO2 affects various plant species and addresses the politicization and disinformation surrounding these facts. Ziska describes the importance of plants for food, medicine, and culture and explores the complex ways higher CO2 concentrations alter the systems on which humanity relies. Greenhouse Planet reveals the stakes of increased CO2 for plants, people, and ecosystems-from crop yields to seasonal allergies and from wildfires to biodiversity. CO2 levels directly affect plant growth, in turn affecting any kind of life that depends on plants-in other words, everything. But the actors are fully invested in the charade, even if the movie that surrounds them is not.The carbon dioxide that industrial civilization spews into the atmosphere has dramatic consequences for life on Earth that extend beyond climate change. Director Berlanti, another TV veteran, pads the film with numerous clichéd montages set to popular music, and the script by Ian Deitchman and Kristin Rusk Robinson brings little that’s new to this baby shower. Eventually, they discover what we knew all along: These two belong together. Neighbors, social workers, and the like come and go, as do career opportunities. Cue the montages of dirty diapers, baby’s first steps, feeding mishaps, along with the psychological sparring between this mismatched pair that we all recognize as a cover-up for their sexual attraction. Nevertheless, they move into their friends’ house to raise adorable Sophie (the Clagett triplets), despite the preposterousness of the premise. Each is a friend of only one of the spouses Holly and Messer’s antipathy for each other is delineated in a blind date shown in the movie’s preamble. In this improbable story, Holly Berenson (Heigl) and Eric Messer (Duhamel), who goes by his last name, become instant parents when their best friends (MacArthur and Hendricks of Mad Men fame) die in a car accident and leave a will that designates Holly and Messer as the child's guardians. Life as We Know It indulges in wish fulfillment and fantasy: motherhood without stretch marks and morning sickness, fatherhood without the rat race and monogamy. It’s the best date-night movie to hit the screens in a while, which, considering the competition, is very faint praise. Heigl and Duhamel, despite extensive filmographies, remain best known for their TV breakthroughs in Grey’s Anatomy and Las Vegas, respectively, and their combined likability quotient infuses this two-singletons-and-a-baby story with a sense of spontaneity and brightness. With its sitcom-ready premise and its engaging and attractive leads, Life as We Know It lives up to its title: This romantic comedy is more of the same. ![]()
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