This TED Talk features public health researcher Christy Eby, recorded live at TED 2019.

Yogi Berra, a U.S. baseball player and philosopher, said, if we don't know where we're going, we might not get there.

Accumulating scientific knowledge is giving us greater insights,

greater clarity into what our future might look like in a changing climate

and what that could mean for our health.

I'm here to talk about a related aspect

on how our emissions of greenhouse gases from burning of fossil fuels is reducing

the nutritional quality of our food. We'll start with the food pyramid. You all know the food

pyramid. We all need to eat a balanced diet. We need to get proteins. We need to get micronutrients. We need to get

vitamins. And so this is a way for us to think about how to make sure we get what we need

every day so we can grow and thrive. But we eat not just because we need to. We also eat for

enjoyment. Bread, pasta, pizza, there's a whole range of foods that are culturally

important. We enjoy eating these. And so they're important for our diet, but they're also

important for our cultures. Carbon dioxide has been increasing since the start of the Industrial Revolution, increasing

from about 280 parts per million to over 410 today, and it continues to increase.

The carbon that plants need to grow comes from this carbon dioxide.

They bring it into the plant, they break it apart, into the carbon itself,

and they use that to grow.

They also need nutrients from the soil.

And so, yes, carbon dioxide is plant food.

And this should be good news of rising carbon dioxide concentrations

for food security around the world,

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