WEBVTT

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Yogi Berra, a US baseball player
and philosopher, said,

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"If we don't know where we're going,
we might not get there."

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Accumulating scientific knowledge
is giving us greater insights,

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greater clarity into what our future
might look like in a changing climate

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and what that could mean for our health.

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I'm here to talk about a related aspect

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on how our emissions of greenhouse gases
from burning of fossil fuels

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is reducing the nutritional
quality of our food.

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We'll start with the food pyramid.

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You all know the food pyramid.

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We all need to eat a balanced diet.

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We need to get proteins.

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We need to get micronutrients.
We need to get vitamins.

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And so this is way for us
to think about how to make sure

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we get what we need every day

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so we can grow and thrive.

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So we eat not just because we need to,

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we also eat for enjoyment.

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Bread, pasta, pizza,

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there's a whole range of foods

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that are culturally important.

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We enjoy eating these.

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And so they're important for our diet,

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but they're also important
for our cultures.

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Carbon dioxide has been increasing since
the start of the Industrial Revolution,

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increasing from about
280 parts per million to over 410 today,

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and it continues to increase.

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The carbon that plants need to grow
comes from this carbon dioxide.

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They bring it into the plant,
they break it apart

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into the carbon itself,

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and they use that to grow.

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They also need nutrients from the soil.

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And so yes, carbon dioxide is plant food.

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And this should be good news,
of rising carbon dioxide concentrations,

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for food security around the world,

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making sure that people
get enough to eat every day.

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About 820 million people in the world
don't get enough to eat every day.

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So there's a fair amount written
about how higher CO2

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is going to help with
our food security problem.

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We need to accelerate our progress
in agricultural productivity,

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to feed the nine to 10 billion people
who will be alive in 2050

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and to achieve the Sustainable
Development Goals,

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particularly the Goal Number 2,

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that is on reducing food insecurity,

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increasing nutrition,

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increasing access to the foods
that we need for everyone.

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We know that climate change
is affecting agricultural productivity.

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The Earth has warmed
about one degree Centigrade

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since pre-industrial times.

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That is changing local temperature
and precipitation patterns,

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and that has consequences
for the agricultural productivity

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in many parts of the world.

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And it's not just local changes
in temperature and precipitation,

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it's the extremes,

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Extremes in terms of heat waves,
floods and droughts

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are significantly affecting productivity.