Group items tagged

"For the past three years it's been an occasional pleasure and a frequent privilege to work with the academics who contribute to The Conversation's Environment & Energy section. It's not just the soil jokes and the hilarious profile pictures: it's the opportunity to see a whole bunch of actual evidence about environmental issues. Academic writing is replete with facts. Facts aren't just awesome because they help you win trivia; they can also be the foundation of evidence-based policy. Karl-Ludwig G. Poggemann Click to enlarge Here are some facts I've learned in 2013."

This course introduces the academic discipline of sustainability and explores how today's human societies can endure in the face of global change, ecosystem degradation and resource limitations.

"How do we achieve food security in the face of climate change? Answering this question means weaving together many strands of evidence about our complex food and climate systems to produce a clear image. In response to this challenge, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), with support from the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development, convened the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, thirteen senior scientists working on agriculture, climate, nutrition, economics and natural resources in governmental, academic and civil society institutions around the world."

Climate Commons is a map-based interactive platform that contains layers of news and information on climate change in the US. It is designed to provide academics, policymakers, journalists, and the general public with the latest data and stories on the causes and impacts of, and responses to climate change across the country. The map combines the most recently available data on climate change indicators, such as temperature, precipitation, and emissions, with the latest, geo-tagged stories on climate change in the United States. By providing users with the ability to compare recent data and media coverage on a local, regional, and national level, Climate Commons aims to inform Americans about the impacts of and responses to climate change in their own towns, regions and states. It also serves as a tool for better analyzing the perception and realities of climate change across the US.

"Each of the 125 leaders attending the New York climate summit this week has been given four minutes to speak to the world. They (or their aides) may well have dipped into the climate literature to add scientific ballast to their speeches. But they may not be as familiar with the vast array of academic studies on effective communication about climate change. They should be. If world leaders and climate advocates really want to improve the chances of mobilising political will and citizen action behind a new deal, they will need to think carefully about what sort of key messages actually work. Clearly there is a balance to strike between doom-ridden messages and "bright-side" opportunities, and uncertainties around the science and the expected effects of climate change must be factored in too. Can risk language help?"