As The Planet Warms, We'll Be Having Rice With A Side Of CO2

Grains are the bedrock of civilization. They led humans from hunting and gathering to city-building. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the fruits of three grasses provide the world with 60 percent of its total food: corn, wheat and rice. Aside from energy-rich carbohydrates, grains feed us protein, zinc, iron and essential B vitamins.

But rice as we know it is at risk.

As humans expel billions of metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere and raze vast swaths of forests, the concentration of published on Wednesday in. For people who depend heavily on rice as a staple in their diets, such a nutritional loss would be devastating, says , a professor at the University of Washington and an author on the study. "When you look at a country like Bangladesh, three out of every four calories comes from rice. Obviously, that means any decline in nutritional value is very significant."