Agricultural production is “very sensitive to ozone pollution,” Heald says, adding that these findings “show how important it is to think about the agricultural implications of air quality regulations. Ozone is something that we understand the causes of, and the steps that need to be taken to improve air quality.”
Denise L. Mauzerall, a professor of environmental engineering and international affairs at Princeton University who was not involved in this research, says, “An important finding … is that controls on air pollution levels can improve agricultural yields and partially offset adverse impacts of climate change on yields. Thus, the increased use of clean energy sources that do not emit either greenhouse gases or conventional air pollutants, such as wind and solar energy, would be doubly beneficial to global food security, as they do not contribute to either climate change or increased surface-ozone concentrations.”
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Park Service, and the Croucher Foundation.
Click here to read/download the Full Research – “Threat to Future Global Food Security from Climate Change and Ozone Air Pollution”.
Source: MIT.
