Tropical plants are blooming as they gorge on our pollution

Christian Ziegler/Minden Pictures/Alamy Stock Photo

Every year, the amount of carbon dioxide in our air increases. This is causing dangerous climate change, but it’s also giving plants a little extra carbon to work with – and some tropical plants are turning it into flowers.

“Plants can convert CO₂ to energy during photosynthesis,” says Stephanie Pau at Florida State University in Tallahassee. “This study suggests that they are allocating that energy to flowers and reproductive activity.”

Pau works with scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, who have been monitoring the forests of Barro Colorado Island in Panama since 1987. They