Good news, bad news.
New research shows that climate change and higher levels of carbon dioxide in the air has spurred more plant growth around the world.
Since plants absorb CO2, researchers say that has caused a decrease in annual carbon emissions from 50 percent to 40 percent over the last 10 years.
Unfortunately, that trend is not nearly enough to offset carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels or deforestation, and climate change still poses a dire threat to earthlings.
Authors of the study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, used computer models, satellite data on plant density and global CO2 measurements to determine levels of "greening" around the world.
They found that from 2002 to 2014, the rate that CO2 increases in the atmosphere leveled off. Previously, that rate increased along with the increase of greenhouse gas emissions.
But the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere still continues to rise to record levels, and plants can't do enough to reverse the runaway effects of climate change.
A grim warning this week from the World Meteorological Organisation said that 2011 to 2015 was the hottest 5-year period ever recorded, and that 16 of the 17 hottest years on record have been this century.