It's a good way to confront mankind's growing need for food and the water needed to produce it, while simultaneously hedging our bets on what many believe to be CO2-induced global warming.

Since 1980 the Earth has weathered three of the warmest decades in the instrumental temperature record, a handful of intense and persistent El Niño events, large-scale deforestation, "unprecedented" forest fires, and the eruption of several volcanoes. Concurrently, the air's CO2 content increased by 16%, while human population grew by 55%. It was a bad time for the biosphere. Or was it?

Are they few and far-between? ... or are they growing ever more frequent ... and ferocious?

How well are the latest versions of today's best climate models performing in this regard?

One can learn a lot from a guppy.

Has it been increasing, decreasing or staying about the same?

Is it negligible, modest or outrageously powerful?

A recent study demonstrates how they may ameliorate the negative effects of ocean acidification.

Our latest result of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature is for Japanese Wireweed (Longphuirt et al., 2013).