Agriculture39
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Facing the Food and Water Challenges of the Future
The global population, now 7 billion, is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050 and will require 70 percent more food than we are producing today, and much more water for agriculture, drinking and industry. Will we have enough water to meet the demand?
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Class Trip – to Bangladesh
To help my students in a class on hazards of Bangladesh better understand the country, I am taking them there to experience Bangladesh for themselves.
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The Groundwater Crisis and the “Grass that Grows in the Water”
Rice is the world’s third-largest crop after wheat and corn; by some estimates it accounts for fully one-fifth of the total calories consumed by the human race. Given these facts, it’s not surprising that countries that have historically struggled with devastating famine would do whatever it takes to ensure strong production of the grain, even…
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One Planet, Too Many People?
Can we manage the needs of 9 billion people for water, food and energy without depleting our resources and ruining the environment? “The solutions,” says Tim Fox, “are all within the capability of existing technology.”
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A Model for Improving Climate Services in Africa
A groundbreaking set of new online climate data maps for Ethiopia gives users free access to 30 years of rainfall and temperature data for the entire country at the click of a button. This is unprecedented anywhere in Africa.
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Climate Services: Global Framework
Jerry Lengoasa, Deputy Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization — How do we bridge the gap between those who have the knowledge and those who don’t, those who have the capacity and those who don’t have the capacity, and the capability?
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Climates Services: Must Help Us Understand Risks
The point is setting priorities right, and for an agency like the World Food Programme, our focus is of course vulnerable people in the most vulnerable countries, countries where climate change is a multiplier of hunger risk. –- WFP’s Carlo Scaramella, in the fifth in a series of video interviews.
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A Climate Tipping Point for World Food Prices?
Increased growing-season heat due to climate change in coming decades could push staple U.S. crops off a cliff, and cause world food prices to jump, a Columbia University economist told a press briefing at a top scientific meeting this week. In a panel organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, economist Wolfram…
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Can Intensive Farming Save Tropical Forests?
With 7 billion people on the planet and some 40 percent of earth’s land surface already covered with croplands and pastures, the only remaining frontiers for agricultural expansion are dwindling tropical forests. Some see high-yield industrial-scale farming as a way to take the pressure off; the theory goes that if more produce can be grown…
By studying thousands of buildings and analyzing their electricity use, Columbia Climate School Dean Alexis Abramson has been able to uncover ways to significantly cut energy consumption and emissions. Watch the Video: “Engineering a Cooler Future Through Smarter Buildings“
