Climate and Agriculture11
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U.S., 5 Nations to Cut Methane, Soot Emissions
The United States and five other countries agreed this week to fund an effort to cut emissions of methane, soot and other pollutants to start to slow the rate of human-induced climate change.
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A Meeting of Science and Human Impact
A talk Monday by Cynthia Rosenzweig of the Center for Climate Systems Research serves as a good example of how some of the hard science being discussed at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting intersects directly with human welfare. She outlined the progress of a new global project that will help scientists produce more accurate…
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Ancient Dry Spells, Future Risk?
The last major drought to hit the northeastern U.S. lasted three years and shrunk New York City’s reservoirs by nearly three quarters. But as bad as that drought was, the region has seen at least three dry spells in the last 6,000 years that were far worse, says Dorothy Peteet, a climate scientist at Columbia…
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Under the Dead Sea, Warnings on Climate and Earthquakes
An international team of scientists drilling deep under the bed of the Dead Sea has found evidence that the sea may have dried up during a past warm period analogous to scenarios for climate change in coming decades. With nations in the volatile region already running short on water, the finding could be a…
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Farmers, Flames and Climate: Are We Entering an Age of ‘Mega-Fires’?
For millennia, people have set fires to clear land for cultivation, pastures or hunting; so-called slash-and-burn agriculture is still common across much of tropical Africa, Asia and South America. It has been a useful strategy–but …
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7 Billion on 10/31: The Numbers Can Be Scary
You can now watch the tape of “The World at 7 Billion: Sustaining Our Future,” the Earth Institute’s panel discussion held at Columbia Oct. 17 and featuring the presentation by Professor Joel E. Cohen on the “good and bad news” behind the growing world population.
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Sprouting Trees From the Underground Forest — A Simple Way to Fight Desertification and Climate Change
Beginning in Niger in the 1980s, Tony Rinaudo, an African aid missionary, began working with farmers to develop a new approach to reforesting degraded landscape. The practice he developed involved selective pruning of shrub shoots to a main stem, which was then pruned of its lower leaves and branches. Within a few years, new woodlands…
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Vertical Farms: From Vision to Reality
Dr. Dickson Despommier believes vertical farming—the growing of crops indoors in multi-story urban buildings—can help feed the growing global population and undo the environmental damage caused by conventional agriculture.
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Can Canadian Water Slake America’s Need for Power?
At a time when the world is abuzz with talk of reducing carbon dioxide emissions to stem the tide of climate change, Canada’s surfeit of hydropower production appears an attractive option to people south of the border who still rely on fossil fuel-generated electricity.
