Elevated CO2 in Combination with Heat Stress Influences the Growth and Productivity of Cereals: Adverse Effect and Adaptive Mechanisms

Abstract

The global picture on climate change has been terrifying. Apart from the controversial ozone layer depletion, there is increased radiation, global warming, incidences of excessive or sparse rainfall, flood, drought, desertification, melting of arctic ice, rise in sea level, tsunami, and possible armageddon, etc. being experienced with loss of agricultural and water resources. The unabated loss of global agricultural and water resources poses a significant threat to world peace and togetherness. Yet, these losses cannot be made up when the world is languishing under the effects of hunger and starvation, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where most of the world’s citizens reside. Most of the time, what breeds civil conflicts and unrest is a struggle for scarce natural resources, especially land, food, clothing, and shelter. As the saying goes, ‘A hungry man is an angry man’. Changing climate is possibly the most nagging and imperative environmental issue on the world’s priority list. The earth’s systems of air, water, and land have always been dynamic as studies of ancient climates show that there have been alternating periods of global warmth and global chill at various times. However, it’s now that ample proofs are testifying to the fact that human actions are altering or possibly rushing climate change.