Carbon dioxide is fuel that helps the plants humans require for food to grow, but researchers are learning that too much of it actually hurts the nutritional quality of rice, wheat and other crops so much of the planet depends on.
“These are very serious potential consequences for health as carbon dioxide continues to rise,” Ebi said. “When you start thinking about the poor in every country who rely on starch, this will put people on the edge over the edge and into deficiencies that create all sorts of health problems,” she said.
And she is just looking at the effects of rising CO2 on plant nutrition, never mind the impacts of climate change — extremes of flooding, temperature and drought — that will also alter agriculture. “I came here primarily to raise awareness,” Ebi said of her TED talk. “This is an issue people should know about, should be paying attention to.
For instance, the studies that have been done project the potential for nutritional decline into the future.