Posted by Tristan Jones | Nov 20, 2009 | 0 Comments
In 1943, Norman Borlaug began his research into new varieties of wheat that could feed the burgeoning population of Mexico. Invited by the Mexican government and funded largely by international philanthropic organizations, Borlaug’s research began what we now refer to as the Green Revolution.
Over the next 13 years, Mexico became agriculturally self-sufficient, and in 1964 [...]
Posted by Eric Holthaus | Nov 9, 2009 | 0 Comments
Experts from Swiss Re, Oxfam America, and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society recently participated in a panel discussion at Columbia recently on weather index insurance for climate change adaptation. The event, organized as part of efforts to support Climate Week in New York, was sponsored by the New York Committee for Oxfam [...]
Posted by Cathy Vaughan | Oct 23, 2009 | 0 Comments
The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) has recently released a series of documents designed to walk policymakers through the potential impacts of the current El Niño. In addition to the health-related report featured earlier, two new papers highlight weather and socioeconomic concerns associated with current climatic conditions.
As readers of this blog well [...]
Posted by Tristan Jones | Oct 21, 2009 | 0 Comments
On October 1, I attended a symposium entitled “Going Beyond Rhetoric: Metrics for Assessing Global Agriculture,” hosted by the Earth Institute and convened at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Fifteen stories in the air, we were surrounded by miles of urban landscape — Queens to the east, Manhattan to the west, and no [...]
Posted by Tristan Jones | Oct 6, 2009 | 2 Comments
In 2008 the world faced one of its most severe food crises in recent history. Around the world riots broke out in otherwise food-secure nations — places like Egypt, Russia, Mexico, and Brazil. The world’s governments responded — a major U.N. conference was held in Geneva. What they discussed there was the fundamental issue of [...]
Posted by Francesco Fiondella | Aug 7, 2009 | 0 Comments
Forecasts by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and other institutions show that a weak El Niño has developed in the equatorial Pacific, and is likely to continue evolving with warmer-than-normal conditions persisting there until early 2010. What exactly is this important climate phenomenon and why should society care about it? Who will [...]
Posted by Mary-Elena Carr | Aug 6, 2009 | 1 Comments
Early last month, I attended a meeting on Abrupt Climate Change in a Warming World. Climate Matters @ Columbia has discussed abrupt climate change before, referring to the hydrologic cycle, and with regards to melting sea ice or permafrost.
Shifts in the earth climate are a known fact: crocodile-like reptiles lived in Greenland 55 million years [...]
Posted by Francesco Fiondella | Jun 23, 2009 | 2 Comments
We know climate has always presented a challenge to farmers, herders, fishermen and others whose livelihoods are closely linked to their environment–particularly in developing countries. A type of insurance called index insurance shows some promise as a climate-risk management tool, according to the latest Climate and Society publication from Columbia’s International Research Institute for Climate [...]
Posted by Lareef Zubair | Mar 31, 2009 | 0 Comments
The Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka (CRI) has sustained an improved prediction scheme for national coconut production for the last four years. Coconuts are an important source of food and raw materials and also provide income to millions in the tropics. Coconuts are the most important food crop after rice in Sri Lanka and [...]
Posted by Francesco Fiondella | Mar 9, 2009 | 0 Comments
I had the pleasure of interviewing Graeme Hammer from the Univ. of Queensland a while back about his experiences incorporating climate information into the decision-making process of farmers in Australia. Something he emphasized a number of times during our conversation: simply giving out additional information such as seasonal forecasts isn’t likely to solve any problems [...]
