A research shows that CO2 weakens the nutritional power of wheat and rice crops. If the presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were increased, humanity would consume less proteins such as iron and zinc, which would cause a public health problem in areas such as Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
By Jose Diaz
Servindi, August 27, 2018.- A few months after the decisive COP 24 to be held in the Polish city of Katowice, anew scientific research shows the negative effects caused by the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere. This time a publication by the journal Nature revealed that carbon dioxide in the air also negatively affects various crops.
Specifically, it deals with rice and wheat crops whose nutritional value would be weakened by the exposure of CO2 if the emissions of polluting gases continue at the current rate until 2050. According to research in the middle of this century a total of 175 million people they would suffer from deficiencies of nutrients such as zinc and other proteins.
"[The study] makes it clear that the decisions we make every day - like heating our homes, what we eat, what we buy or how we move - are making our food less nutritious and endangering the health of other populations", explained the main author of the research Sam Mayers.
The country most affected, according to the report in whose elaboration the Harvard School of Public Health participated, calculates that India would be the most affected country with an average of 122 million people who would lose proteins in their daily diet. Another nutrient that would be affected would be the presence of iron, which would put at risk 1400 million women and children to face diseases such as anemia.
Current deficiencies
At present, it is estimated that there are 2000 million people in the world with nutrient deficiencies. The scientists estimate that 63% of the proteins consumed by humans come from plants, iron and zinc being the nutrients that contribute most to the daily diet of people.
In this way, the risk that generates concern in the scientific community is that a greater presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would weaken the nutritive load of the crops. The research published in Nature states that an increase of 550 parts per million of CO2 would affect crops by decreasing their nutrients in a range of 3% to 17%.
The absence of iron and zinc in the daily diet could generate a large public health problem in a few decades. The regions of the world that are most at risk in this situation would be Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
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