More than half of the United States is enduring an unrelenting drought that research reveals is a level of severity that only happens once in 800 years. As of August 14, 2012, the US Drought Monitor reports that 61.77% of the contiguous US is officially experiencing moderate to extreme drought, the highest percentage in over [...]
Tracing Social Inequalities in Environmentally-Induced Migration The conference series on “Environmental Degradation, Conflict and Forced Migration” is a partnership project of the European Science Foundation (ESF), the Bielefeld University and its Center for Interdisciplinary Research. It explores the causal relationship between environmental damage and forced migration as well as the correlation of both phenomena to [...]
by Claire Havens, ACT Researcher It’s a sad situation that plays itself out regularly in northeastern Africa. Drought-stricken and conflict weary Somalians and Ethiopians flee the hardships of their country and head south, desperately trying to make it to South Africa where life might be a little more kind. Their treacherous journeys necessitate dealing with [...]
British Columbia Agriculture & Food Climate Action Initiative has released a new BC Agriculture Climate Change Adaptation Risk + Opportunity Series of reports. Themes cover adaptation risk & opportunity assessment, and regional snapshots for the Central Interior, Fraser Valley & Metro Vancouver, Okanagan Region, Peace Region and Vancouver Island. The report library is available online. [...]
The New York Times’ Green blog argues why we need to think more holistically about the world’s food security in light of a changing and uncertain climate. The article explains that price jumps are attributed to the tight balance between supply and demand, a warming climate, and food waste. Over a billion people over-consume food, [...]
Ever since the global food price spike in 2007-2008, grain crops, which make up half of the total human caloric intake around the world, have been subject to much discussion as climate impacts such as droughts, heat waves and temperatures increases have continued to shift their prices upward. A recent article by Janet Larsen of [...]
Affluent countries like Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China and India are acquiring or leasing huge tracts of fertile plains across the African continent to produce wheat, rice and corn for consumption back home, in response to rising global food prices and reduced exportation of commodities. Some of these land acquisitions are enormous. South Korea, which [...]
By Deborah Harford As published in the June 15, 2011 Embassy feature: Climate Security: Preparing for a future of increasing uncertainty on page 19. When we talk about security we mean a number of things, key among these being physical safety and economic stability. Both forms of security depend on systems that protect and support [...]
