İnstitute of Graduate Studies - lisansustu@gelisim.edu.tr
Economics And Finance (English) (Master) (Thesis)
14 September 2021 Tuesday
Agriculture in the triangle of greenhouse gases, global warming and climate change
NASA, in its article dated 01.09.2021 on its website, discusses agriculture under the effects of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere, global warming and climate change.
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that is emitted through the burning of fossil fuels and is one of the main reasons for global warming. This gas can be permanent in the atmosphere for hundreds of years and can be removed by plants through photosynthesis. However, this effort of plants is not sufficient to remove all the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since the emission is way higher than the amount that plants can remove by photosynthesis. Since this is the case, what is going to be the effect of carbon dioxide accumulated in the atmosphere on crops and agricultural activities?
Studies show that high levels of carbon dioxide works as a fertilizer and have good effects on crop yields, provided that the amount of benefit that the crops get depends on the type of the crop. For instance, crops such as rice, barley and wheat benefit from high levels of carbon dioxide while corn cannot take as much benefit as the forenamed crops. As more carbon dioxide is available in the air, the crop loses less water during the flourishing period which derives positive effects on the growing of crops. However, along with good effects on crop yields, high levels of carbon dioxide decrease the nutritive values of the agricultural products which means there will be less protein, carbon hydrate and other nutritive elements embedded in crops, despite the increasing amount.
One must not ignore that the accumulated carbon dioxide in the air accompanies the increase in temperatures. The most observable effect of the increasing temperature on the plants is wilting from water loss. Temperature rise also has an impact on plants’ life cycle in which the increase in temperatures shortens the life cycle of plants, makes them spending less time growing and as a result, ultimately leads to less grain offered by plants and a drop in crop yields.
Unfortunately, we are already seeing the impact of climate change on the water sources used for irrigation and drinking purposes. It is reported in the article that snowpacks which are the primary sources of both drinking and agricultural water are melting and groundwaters are depleting due to the reasons stemming from usage and sensitivity to climate change. Additionally, in a warmer future and regions, the water in the soil will be more prone to evaporating and likely to leave less water for plants. It is also stated that some regions are expected to benefit from additional rainfall while some other regions will suffer from excessive rainfall. More regions will face droughts.
Experts dwell on three types of adaptation. First, decisions such as when to plant or crop rotation can be decided upon every year. Second, long-term investments such as new agricultural machinery or more advanced irrigation systems and infrastructures can be planned and the last goes transformative actions such as breeding new types of crops or responding to large-scale changes in the diets of masses.
