Is it possible that higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations increases available food.?

Question

Theories abound that state the increased CO2 concentrations over the last century cause global warming, which in turn cause greater flooding, droughts and displacements of peoples. Floods and droughts can cause food shortages---no arguing that, but could it not be the reality that increased CO2 concentrations increase food stocks for the world, therein offsetting the alleged disruption of food supplies, caused by higher CO2 levels. Is it possible that higher CO2 concentrations in the biosphere is actually a GOOD thing? A net positive??

Answer 1

Recent research indicates that rising CO2 levels may make food less nutritious, so we'll have to find ways to grow more of it, while growing conditions have become a lot more challenging through heat, drought, etc.:

Warming may change the nature of the food we eat

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/Suzu...

With less nutritious plants, animals that rely on foraging may find winters more difficult to survive.

Answer 2

C4 plants/grasses love this stuff. Who's to really say which areas will benefit the most. I've read studies that suggest different outcomes based on different scenarios.

Answer 3

All things being equal, increased CO2 will increase the productivity of individual plants.  However, if climatic zones (and growing regions) shift by hundreds of kilometers or more, will still be in a sorry state with regard to food production.  Take, for example, California.  California has the largest agricultural production of any state, and it relies heavily on water transported from elsewhere.  Forecasts (and we're seeing this already) are for decreased snowfall in the West (more rain) and so less water available during the late summer growing seasons.  While there may be some incremental increase in productivity due to increased carbon dioxide, if there's no water for the crops they won't grow anyway. I think we will be in a world of hurt if we expect increased plant productivity to offset climate shift.  It probably will do wonders for the boreal forests, though.

Answer 4

This is very true, crop failures from global cooling led to the barbarian invasions from 300 to 800 that brought down the Roman Empire. Hundreds of millions of people died because of those crop failures. The same happened during the first stages of the little ice age that occurred from the 13th through the 19th centuries. If we are heading into a real cooling period today the crop losses could kill millions of people again/

Answer 5

no, man would be too late realize this harm part of global warming so it wouldn't create any alleged food stocking

Answer 6

Global warming will have winners and losers.

Crop yields could increase by 20% in East and Southeast Asia, but decrease by up to 30% in Central and South Asia

Agriculture fed by rainfall could drop by 50% in some African countries by 2020