Food Climate and Carbon Dioxide: The Global Environment and World Food Production [Hardcover]

Sylvan H. Wittwer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0873717961 | ISBN-13: 978-0873717960 | Publication Date: October 30, 1995 | Edition: 1

Food, Climate, and Carbon Dioxide presents the most comprehensive and up-to-date discussion on the effects of the rising level of atmospheric carbon dioxide on crop production and plant growth. The emphasis is global. It examines crops of economic value, with special attention to the food crops that stand between people and starvation.
The author has brought together his knowledge and 50 years of experience dealing with global food production problems, coupled with and a background of his own premier research on the positive effects of elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide on plant growth and crop productivity. Topics addressed include the climate as a resource in food production and climatic impacts and direct effects from rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide on crops. The book provides global and regional projections of a CO2 -induced climate change and food production. Food security is discussed and future possibilities for research are presented. Suitable as a text and invaluable as a reference, it presents the latest developments drawn from a wide scientific community and uses language and terminology appropriate for a diverse audience.

Editorial Reviews

Review

I consider this book a 'must' reading for all persons working with 'Global Change' or 'greenhouse warming' issues. It is also an excellent summary for the non-technical reader wanting to better understand the State of the art science and the potential of interactions for many complex biological responses resulting from increasing atmosphere levels of greenhouse gases, particularly for food production. Wittwer's 'Food, Climate, and Carbon Dioxide' highlights the importance of climate and weather as a natural resource in global agricultural production. It outlines the complex interactions between climate and weather and biological systems globally and nationally. The role of climate and weather variability and extremes, usually ignored by the 'greenhouse warming' community, is correctly identified as being of greater importance to world food production, as it has been in the past and during the present time and will be in the future. The variability and extremes are the keys to future food supplies, regardless of whether the potential for global warming is achieved as projected by the limited capabilities of current General Circulation models (GCMs).
-Norton D. Strommen
Chief Meteorologist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, World Agricultural Outlook Board

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: CRC-Press; 1 edition (October 30, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873717961
• ISBN-13: 978-0873717960
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,751,988 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The greening of planet earth" is real., September 24, 1998

By 

Ned Leonard ([e-mail]) (Arlington, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Food Climate and Carbon Dioxide: The Global Environment and World Food Production (Hardcover)

Dr. Wittwer is the "godfather" of the greening of planet earth hypothesis, that is, increasing carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are an environmental benefit because of their impact on plant life. His research review is an antidote to fear of catastrophic changes in climate brought on by humankind's CO2 emissions.

It is in vogue to refer to carbon dioxide as a pollutant because it is the inevitable consequence of carbon (fossil fuel, wood, peat) combustion. Dr. Wittwer correctly observes that it is the elixir of life on earth and a universally-free premium because of its stimulation of plant growth, its contribution to water-use efficiency in plants, and the way in which it helps plants resist a variety of environmental stresses. This aspect of the climate change debate has been for too long ignored, overlooked or denigrated.

Thoughtful readers will find the research reviewed by Dr. Wittwer to be extremely compelling. He anticipates his skeptics and makes an overwhelming case firmly rooted in empirical research carried on throughout the world.