As we have noted many times, one of the major questions about climate change is what it will do to the world’s food supply. Competing factors are at work.

On the one hand, the rising level of carbon dioxide in the air significantly bolsters the growth of plants, potentially raising yields. Conversely, rising heat and, in some places, additional weather extremes like drought and heavy rains threaten to reduce yields.

Climate contrarians like to cite the upside potential of rising carbon dioxide while largely ignoring the risks. And early research, often done under artificial conditions, did indeed suggest the gains were likely to outweigh the losses. But a growing body of research conducted under more realistic field conditions suggests the opposite may often be the case.

Now comes an interesting new entry in the literature. Kees Jan van Groenigen, a scientist at Trinity College in Dublin, and colleagues synthesized the results of 63 studies to determine what would happen to rice cultivation on a warming planet.

Their paper was released over the weekend in the journal Nature Climate Change. (A summary is here, the full paper is here for those with access to the journal, and the associated news release is here.) If growing […]