Appetite for Change

Appetite for Change

The global food system is under scrutiny for environmental impacts including habitat degradation, greenhouse gas emissions and freshwater use. Half the world’s farmers go hungry, while around a billion people are clinically obese. Demand for food is growing and yields are falling. Radical and rapid systemic change is required.

Learn more by  watching the video briefing in the SustainAbility Library.

Guide to Process Based Modeling of Lakes and Coastal Seas

Guide to Process Based Modeling of Lakes and Coastal Seas
by Anders Omstedt, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden

Mounting concern about the influence of humans on climate and environmental conditions has increased the need for multi-disciplinary modeling efforts, including systems such as oceans, costal seas, lakes, land surfaces, ice, rivers and atmosphere.

For more information please see the publishers web site.

New BUP Director

Following a decision at the CSD Uppsala to reorganize the work at the BUP secretariat, Paula Lindroos has assumed the responsibility of the programme director of the BUP. On its meeting on May 6 the BUP board expressed its gratitude for the fine work Christine Jakobsson has done as programme director in serving the BUP, and welcomed Paula Lindroos as the new programme director. Christine has been director in-charge of the BUP since 2007 and will continue in her position as BUP vice director. Paula has worked with BUP in Finland from 1991 and she has also been BUP vice director 1999-2002.

Mapping hotspots of climate change and food insecurity in the global tropics

Mapping hotspots of climate change and food insecurity in the global tropics.
by Ericksen P, Thornton P, Notenbaert A, Cramer L, Jones P, Herrero M. 2011. CCAFS Report no. 5. CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Copenhagen, Denmark.

This study was coordinated by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) to identify areas that are food insecure and vulnerable to the impacts of future climate change, across the priority regions for the CGIAR centres. The research was undertaken by a team of scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The study relied on maps: first, of variables that indicate the different aspects of food security (availability, access and utilization), and second, of thresholds of climate change exposure important for agricultural systems. Vulnerability was assessed using a domain approach based upon the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) framework of vulnerability as a function of exposure, sensitivity and coping capacity. Nine domains were identified; for each domain areas of the tropics were classified by high or low exposure, high or low sensitivity, and high or low coping capacity.