Climate Change Is Making Food Less Nutritious

The EU and some other countries wanted a roadmap to end the use of fossil fuels and signed a letter saying they would reject any deal without a plan to transition from oil, gas, and coal. But the Saudi-led group objected to language, which could be seen as an agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions faster. 

The compromise ending the COP30 summit allowed countries to voluntarily speed up their climate action and voluntarily start discussions on phasing out fossil fuels. The deal referenced back to the consensus reached at COP28 two years ago in Dubai, saying that the world would transition away from fossil fuels. 

The watered-down agreement was approved by consensus of the nearly 200 countries there, with the glaring absence of the Trump administration. The deal does provide for $120 billion a year to help developing countries adapt to climate change, but they will not receive any funds until 2035—five years after they wanted it.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said in a statement that the leases would open untouched Alaskan waters to drilling and revive the offshore oil and gas industry in California. The plan, according to NRDC, would damage the places and people not only in those areas but also off Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico, where drilling has not been allowed since 1995 over worries about spills. In California, there are currently some rigs but no new ones since the 1980s.

While blocking renewable energy from wind and solar, the Trump administration has pursued what it calls a policy of “energy dominance.” Additionally, about ten days ago, the administration said it would rescind federal rules that protect large regions of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska that are critical habitat for wildlife, including grizzly bears, migrating birds, and caribou. The Biden administration had restricted oil and gas development in the reserve, which is the largest single area of public land in the U.S.

The demand for oil in the U.S. is predicted to climb in 2025 to a level not seen in 18 years. The online publication Energy Now reports that the Trump administration is not solely to blame for this increase, which can be attributed to President Biden, Trump in his first term, and President Obama, when a wave of petrochemical plants started making many products including plastics and synthetic fibers. Still, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, gasoline for vehicles is the most consumed petroleum product in the country.

Researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands say increased carbon in the atmosphere is lowering the amount of nutrients in crops—but making them higher in calories, as CO2 boosts photosynthesis. 

People may feel full after eating, but they could be taking in less zinc, iron, and proteins, contributing to so-called “hidden hunger,” where people have sufficient calories but insufficient nutrition. Because the number of calories is increasing, climate change may also be contributing to obesity. Concentrations of harmful substances such as lead may also be increasing, although more data are needed, the researchers say.

The researchers analyzed and compared crop data from numerous studies and found that as CO2 levels doubled, so too did the effect on nutrients, with some decreasing by 4.4 percent on average and others as much by 38 percent. The team focused on 43 crops, including rice, potatoes, tomatoes, and wheat. Rice is the primary staple for over half of the world's population, and another 2.5 billion people depend on wheat.

According to the researchers, the study shows our diet is already less nutritious than a few decades ago when CO2 levels were at 350 parts per million (ppm). The team evaluated what could happen at 550 ppm—a level we can expect to reach in our lifetimes. The authors conclude that even if food security can be assured, nutrient security is not a given.

The research was published in the journal Global Change Biology.

“Reality is messier” says Rabi Musah, a professor in environmental chemistry at Louisiana State University. Critical clues about the deceased can be quickly erased by scavengers, humidity, and bacteria. But there are fingerprints at the scene if you know where to look—fingerprints left by flies—necrophagous insects that are nature’s first responders to death. 

Blow flies, specifically, can smell decay from nearly two kilometers away, and arrive within minutes to lay eggs. The larvae—also known as maggots—grow, pupate, and take off, but not without leaving behind tough, brown casings that linger for years. In the growing field of "forensic entomology" those casings can help determine the “post-mortem interval”—the time since the person’s passing—and mystery solved. 

Not quite. The problem is that there are a variety of blow fly species each with different life cycle rates, so you need to first identify the fly to make the forensics work. Musah and her team are doing just that. They’re building a database of chemical fingerprints for various species and their life stages.

All that detectives would need to do is drop an insect sample into a vial of ethanol and water, send it off for a two-minute analysis, and look for a match in Musah’s database. It’s akin to dusting for fingerprints. The tool can not only help with solving the time of a person’s death—it might also reveal if they died of an overdose or were poisoned. Musah says if you can retrieve maggots from remains, you can analyze them for traces of chemicals the person may have ingested. 

So, perhaps a new TV series is in the offing? CSI: Crime Scene Insects.

The study was published in the journal Forensic Chemistry.