Climate change to reduce apple production in India: Study

Climate change would reduce apple production in India by affecting the winter chill period necessary for the plants and even methods of geoengineering would have limited effect on its output, according to a research conducted by the US National Science Foundation (NSF).

The research highlighted that geoengineering methods, such as spraying sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere to combat global warming, can only offer a temporary benefit to the production. “During the study, we found that climate change would reduce apple production by affecting the winter chill period necessary for the plants. But geoengineering would have limited benefits but at the same time could backfire if it ended suddenly,” said Alan Robock of Rutgers University, who is part of the research, in a statement issued by NSF.

   

The research was published in the journal Climatic Change and said the society might decide to spray sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere (upper atmosphere) to combat warming during a climate emergency, but such geoengineering, or climate intervention, would create a massive cloud that would block some solar radiation and cool the Earth.

But if the spraying were to suddenly cease, the study said, there would be a major impact on animals and plants, which would be forced to try to move to suitable habitat to survive.

“The spraying of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere to combat global warming is used only temporarily and partially to benefit apple production in Himachal Pradesh,” the study noted. Moreover, abruptly ending geoengineering might lead to total crop failure faster than if it were not done at all, it added.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

fourteen + eighteen =