Scopus preview - Scopus - Document details

Scopus preview - Scopus - Document details: "Human appropriation of net primary production in the United Kingdom, 1800-2000. Changes in society's impact on ecological energy flows during the agrarian-industrial transition"

CGIAR Livestock and Fish Mega Program

CGIAR Livestock and Fish Mega Program: "As explained in the 1st week of this e-consultation, we propose to focus our efforts on working with development partners to transform and upgrade selected livestock and fish value chains in a few countries to increase their production and benefits to the poor. A significant share of our resources will therefore be devoted to gaining a systemic understanding of each value chain, evaluating its performance, and identifying opportunities that add value and improve their efficiency and benefits. In some cases, we will be able to respond to these opportunities by applying readily available technologies and strategies and support our development partners to build the needed capacity for their uptake. In many cases, though, specific long-standing constraints will limit the response to an opportunity– e.g., poor feed availability during the dry season–and research will be needed to propose better solutions."

Does infectious disease cause global variation in the frequency of intrastate armed conflict and civil war? - Letendre - 2010 - Biological Reviews - Wiley Online Library

Does infectious disease cause global variation in the frequency of intrastate armed conflict and civil war? - Letendre - 2010 - Biological Reviews - Wiley Online Library: "Geographic and cross-national variation in the frequency of intrastate armed conflict and civil war is a subject of great interest. Previous theory on this variation has focused on the influence on human behaviour of climate, resource competition, national wealth, and cultural characteristics. We present the parasite-stress model of intrastate conflict, which unites previous work on the correlates of intrastate conflict by linking frequency of the outbreak of such conflict, including civil war, to the intensity of infectious disease across countries of the world. High intensity of infectious disease leads to the emergence of xenophobic and ethnocentric cultural norms. These cultures suffer greater poverty and deprivation due to the morbidity and mortality caused by disease, and as a result of decreased investment in public health and welfare. Resource competition among xenophobic and ethnocentric groups within a nation leads to increased frequency of civil war. We present support for the parasite-stress model with regression analyses. We find support for a direct effect of infectious disease on intrastate armed conflict, and support for an indirect effect of infectious disease on the incidence of civil war via its negative effect on national wealth."

The Meat Crisis

The Meat Crisis: "Meat and dairy production and consumption are in crisis. Globally 60 billion farm animals are used for food production every year. It is well accepted that methane emissions from cattle and other livestock are major contributors to greenhouse gas levels and to climate change. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) predicts a rough doubling of meat and milk consumption by 2050, with particularly rapid growth occurring in the developing economies of Asia. This could raise the number of farm animals used annually to nearer 120 billion. What will this mean for the health and wellbeing of those animals, of the people who consume ever larger quantities of animal products, and for the health of the planet itself?"

ScienceDirect - Ecological Economics, Volume 69, Issue 11, Pages 2045-2302 (15 September 2010)

ScienceDirect - Ecological Economics, Volume 69, Issue 11, Pages 2045-2302 (15 September 2010): "Special Section - Payments for Ecosystem Services: From Local to Global
Edited by Joshua Farley and Robert Costanza"

Forum: Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development

Forum: Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development: "The Forum on Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development is an attempt to outline the burgeoning field. Rather than looking broadly at sustainability, the Forum focuses on the way in which science and innovation can be conducted and applied to meet human needs while preserving the life support systems of the planet. It highlights people and programs that are studying nature-society interactions and applying the resulting knowledge to create a sustainability transition around the world."

Sustainability Unpacked

Sustainability Unpacked: "Sustainability Unpacked
Food, Energy and Water for Resilient Environments and Societies
By Kristiina A. Vogt, Toral Patel-Weynand, Maura Shelton, Daniel J. Vogt, John C. Gordon, Cal Mukumoto, Asep S. Suntana and Patricia A. Roads
�

‘What is ‘sustainability’? Taking a comprehensive yet simple approach, this book discusses the inter-linking and complex elements of sustainability and how they influence and are influenced by our society when it comes to making decisions about resource use. A must-read book for everyone interested in conservation, the environment and development.’"

Animals Ethics and Trade - The Challenge of Animal Sentience

Animals Ethics and Trade - The Challenge of Animal Sentience: "Modern urban life cuts us off from direct connection with the animal world yet daily the lives of millions of animals are affected by what we consume and wear and what we trade in. The use of animals for food labour and pleasure pursuits has long been justified with the assumption that unlike humans animals aren’t fully sentient beings."

Animal Breeding, Welfare and Society

Animal Breeding, Welfare and Society: "This book discusses the methods, the motivations and the consequences of human intervention in animal breeding in terms of animal health, behaviour and well-being. It explores where we are now and the choices ahead, and looks to a future where we have more respect for animals as sentient beings and where we could loosen the reins of reproductive control."

Environmental eScience — Philosophical Transactions A

Environmental eScience — Philosophical Transactions A: "The Internet has changed not only the way society operates but also how scientists work. There has also been a step change in the quantity of data that scientists routinely amass and need to analyse. These technologies have transformed our working lives as researchers.

The way we can store and retrieve complex and often heterogeneous data makes new types of analysis possible for the first time. The growth in the raw power of computers, as well as in the ways in which this power can be harnessed, allows new problems to be modelled and old issues to be studied in greater detail. But the speed of technological innovation has been so great that the full power of these technologies has yet to be realized across all scientific fields. National research agencies have an important role in supporting scientists as they adapt to this changing landscape"

Genetically Manipulated Crops: The GMO Catastrophe in the USA. A Lesson for the World

Genetically Manipulated Crops: The GMO Catastrophe in the USA. A Lesson for the World: "Recently the unelected potentates of the EU Commission in Brussels have sought to override what has repeatedly been shown to be the overwhelming opposition of the European Union population to the spread of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) in EU agriculture."

Livestock production: recent trends, future prospects — Philosophical Transactions B

Livestock production: recent trends, future prospects — Philosophical Transactions B: "The livestock sector globally is highly dynamic. In developing countries, it is evolving in response to rapidly increasing demand for livestock products. In developed countries, demand for livestock products is stagnating, while many production systems are increasing their efficiency and environmental sustainability. Historical changes in the demand for livestock products have been largely driven by human population growth, income growth and urbanization and the production response in different livestock systems has been associated with science and technology as well as increases in animal numbers. In the future, production will increasingly be affected by competition for natural resources, particularly land and water, competition between food and feed and by the need to operate in a carbon-constrained economy. Developments in breeding, nutrition and animal health will continue to contribute to increasing potential production and further efficiency and genetic gains. Livestock production is likely to be increasingly affected by carbon constraints and environmental and animal welfare legislation. Demand for livestock products in the future could be heavily moderated by socio-economic factors such as human health concerns and changing socio-cultural values. There is considerable uncertainty as to how these factors will play out in different regions of the world in the coming decades."

Navigating your way around a REDD story - SciDev.Net

Navigating your way around a REDD story - SciDev.Net: "This guide, published by Panos London, explains why forests are a vital and controversial issue in global climate change negotiations and provides journalists with tips on how to report about REDD — reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

REDD is a proposed mechanism to slow the loss of forests — and therefore climate change — by paying forest nations, often developing countries, to stop deforestation."

About the NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node

About the NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node: "WDIN is a collaborative project working to develop a Web-based monitoring and reporting system to provide state and federal resource managers, animal disease specialists, veterinary diagnostic laboratories, physicians, public health workers, educators, and the general public with access to data on wildlife diseases, mortality events, and other critical related information. Data are contributed voluntarily, with partners deciding which data they choose to share.

The Node is a dynamic and evolving Web resource, reflecting the expanding and continually changing face of wildlife disease. As more partners come together as part of this collaborative project, the resulting distributed wildlife disease data warehouse can be a valuable resource for all to share and use to enhance the understanding, surveillance, management, control, and prevention of wildlife diseases around the world."

Michael Pollan: The Mighty Rise of the Food Revolution | Food | AlterNet

Michael Pollan: The Mighty Rise of the Food Revolution | Food | AlterNet: "Until very recently, food was invisible as a political issue. Something is stirring. Pollan reviews five books that address the heart of the food movement."

Conference at onsustainability.com

Conference at onsustainability.com: "Welcome to the website of the Seventh International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability. The 2011 Conference is to be held at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand From 5 to 7 January. The Conference will work in a multidisciplinary way across the various fields and perspectives through which we can address the fundamental and related questions of sustainability."

Solving the world's hunger and obesity crises together - CNN.com

Solving the world's hunger and obesity crises together - CNN.com

The “Green” Assault on America Continues � Publications � Family Security Matters

The “Green” Assault on America Continues � Publications � Family Security Matters: "At the end of the Cold War, there was an influential sentiment in academic and business circles that the nation-state was going to lose its central position in world politics that it had held since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The nation would be assaulted from both above and below. Globalization would shift authority to “higher” planes like the United Nations, while sub-national interest groups would pursue their own agendas indifferent or hostile to society. Allegiances would shift. Corporations would follow profits, not the flag, and non-government organizations (NGOs) would place ideology above country"

eBooks.com - Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present eBook

eBooks.com - Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present eBook: "Big History represents a new kind of history, one that skillfully interweaves historical knowledge and cutting-edge science. In an age of global warming, when the fate of the earth hangs in the balance, scientific advances permit us to see the universe as never before, grasping the timescales that allow us to understand the history of mankind in the context of its ecological impact on the planet. Cynthia Brown’s lucid, accessible narrative is the first popularization of this innovative new field of study, as thrilling as it is ambitious."

International food security situation is not optimistic about this year or even more serious | Tom Wilt News

International food security situation is not optimistic about this year or even more serious | Tom Wilt News: "Since the latter half of 2007 around the world have emerged as the basis Food prices Inflation caused by rising global food reserve has dropped to its lowest level in 35 years. FAO researchers said: “In the past, this food market panic soon subsided, but this does not seem as in the past. The current serious imbalance in supply and demand, can not find easy solution.” In this Food crisis , From the Caribbean to the south of the Sahara, more than 30 countries and regions in conflict and unrest due to hunger."

How to feed a hungry world : Nature : Nature Publishing Group

How to feed a hungry world : Nature : Nature Publishing Group: "Producing enough food for the world's population in 2050 will be easy. But doing it at an acceptable cost to the planet will depend on research into everything from high-tech seeds to low-tech farming practices."

Global network needed to monitor world's agriculture - SciDev.Net

Global network needed to monitor world's agriculture - SciDev.Net: "Writing in Nature, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs, and 24 agricultural experts call for a global network to monitor the effects of agriculture on the environment.

Evaluating the social, environmental and economic effects of different farming systems is a key step towards making agriculture sustainable and ensuring food security"

Food Prices Soar (again) – Governments Starved Ag Research of Funding for Last 20 Years � Stephen Leahy, International Environmental Journalist

Food Prices Soar (again) – Governments Starved Ag Research of Funding for Last 20 Years � Stephen Leahy, International Environmental Journalist: "A billion people go hungry every day, food prices have climbed 30 to 40 percent, climate change is reducing agricultural production – and for the past two decades, the world has slashed investments in publicly-funded agriculture until it is a pittance in most countries."

With Enough Land plus Biotechnology to Feed Us All Why do People Still Go Hungry? | Sustainable Shelter

With Enough Land plus Biotechnology to Feed Us All Why do People Still Go Hungry? | Sustainable Shelter: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care according to article 25 of the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights."

Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health | International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health | International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI): "Agriculture impacts poor people’s nutrition and health, and people’s nutrition and health in turn affects their productivity. As a supplier of food, a source of income, and an engine of growth, agriculture has the potential to significantly and sustainably improve poor people’s nutrition and health."

ScienceDirect - Futures : Science, technology and future sustainability

ScienceDirect - Futures : Science, technology and future sustainability "The sustainability debate can be characterized as being between advocates of modifications to currently dominant forms of development, so as to reduce pollution and resource use, and those advocating more fundamental global reform, encompassing issues as diverse as equity and humanity's relationship with nature. The former views are challenged by critics that regard the exploitative attitude to nature, integral to them, as pivotal to our present unsustainable predicament. Science and technology play a decisive role in legitimating this exploitative relationship, with this outlook integral to the western scientific tradition. Serious consideration of alternatives requires a reappraisal of the application and practice of science and technology, focusing on the instrumental perception of nature at present central to them. "

ScienceDirect - Futures : Future sustainability and images

ScienceDirect - Futures : Future sustainability and images: "Ambitions for sustainable development invariably lead to pondering the future, because sustainability issues require a future oriented transition of existing, unsustainable systems and practices. Working towards transition requires thorough experimentation with a broad range of innovation projects. However, in the public arena, many such projects are met with stereotypical images, which influence their innovative potential in often unpredictable ways. What is the role of multiple images in complex sustainable development issues, and what are promising approaches to deal with their associated problems? "