Although President-Elect Trump appears not to believe that global warming is a genuine threat and might even be a Chinese hoax, his argument that it might not be as bad as scientists fear. 

In a new study just published by Nature Communications, it appears that Earth's plant life loves more carbon dioxide being pumped into the air and is absorbing it at a faster rate than ever before.  

In 2014 when the latest measurements are available, about 35.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide was pumped into the air. The figure has continued to climb every year since the mid 20th century, when there was only about 6 billion tons emitted. As a consequence, according to the report, the concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere has also been rising, from around 311 parts per million in 1950 to a little over 400 in 2015. 

However, the rate it is rising appears to have slowed down since the turn of the new century. According to researchers, between 1959 and 1989 the rate that CO2 levels grew rose from about 0.75 ppm per year to 1.86 ppm. However, since 2002, it has stayed almost the same. In other words, even though we are pumping out more CO2 than ever before, less of it appears to be lingering in the air we breathe. 

The study also reports that between 1982 and 2009, around 18 million square kilometers of new vegetation had sprouted on the Earth's surface, which is an area about twice the size of the U.S. Around the end of the 20th century, about 50% of the CO2 emitted by humans was removed from the atmosphere by plants. Now, however, that number appears closer to 60%. So, plants and other processes that convert CO2 seem to have become more effective.

The conclusion seems to be that faster-growing land plants have adapted to the higher amounts of CO2 and their photosynthesis has sped up and become more effective. So, maybe President-Elect Trump's argument may have some merit after all.