MSc Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security
COVID -19 Vaccine Inequity – ArcGIS StoryMap
I created a short StoryMap, and talked about the issues with vaccination drives being faced by countries in Africa. You can find it at the link below:
Link here – https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/cb31deb658d94cf4b379301f2fa87679
The Grand Sud region of Madagascar, in the south of the country, is currently experiencing what is increasingly being considered the modern world’s first climate change-induced famine. The worst droughts in 40 years have put more than one million people at risk of malnourishment. These droughts are leading to increased desertification, and when rains do come, locust swarms often arrive soon after to devour any crops that have grown. This has led to a situation where food shortages are threatening a catastrophic humanitarian disaster.
Families are digging for roots and tearing chunks off cacti in a desperate attempt to sustain themselves. Some people have been driven to eating scraps of leather, boiled and salted. Al Jazeera, reporting from the Anosy region of the country, heard from one woman who pleaded for help:
“Look at my child, please help us!”
Continue reading “The world’s first climate change-induced famine in Madagascar”Was this then the summer when Climate Change finally came to make itself at home in the consciousness of Western Europeans? In recent years, we have watched from a distance as extreme weather-related disasters have struck different regions across the planet in turn. Australia, Greece, and the West coast of North America have experienced devastating wildfires, and widespread death and destruction. Storms, severe floods, and landslides affected upwards of 30 million people in the Philippines and Vietnam in 2020 alone. While this year, in Africa, there is growing consensus that Madagascar is suffering through the modern world’s first climate change-induced famine. This new phenomenon compounds the already worsening conditions in much of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Continue reading “Alarms bells in Western Europe – has climate change just introduced itself to the continent?”IFPRI – International Food Policy Research Institute
CCAFS – Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security
CGIAR – Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
For many people, sea level rise is considered the malignant poster child of the worsening climate disaster. The melting polar ice caps pose an overbearing threat to the major coastal cities around the world. Popular culture depictions of vast floods engulfing Manhattan, and interactive maps showing the likely devastation in your own area are dramatic, and easily accessible. Dramatic as they are, these biblical floods are not representative of the likely near-term effects climate-related sea level rise will have on many at-risk people’s livelihoods globally. This blog post looks at the gradual encroachment of sea water into agricultural lands. The accompanying increases in levels of soil salinity can have devastating impacts on the production capabilities of these farmlands, threatening food security in vulnerable regions.
Continue reading “Salinity Intrusion In South Asia – Potential Solutions”It’s a familiar line in the context of city planning and development. ‘Build up, not out’ – transitioning the development of our cities toward a high-rise model will cut commuters’ journey times, reduce emissions, and protect the biodiversity that would otherwise be paved over through the building of sprawling suburban estates. The concept of ‘Vertical Farming’ (VF) may not, however, be quite so well-known. Also termed Vertical Agriculture, the process involves growing crops indoors, in vertically stacked layers, like shelving in a store. The plants are grown in facilities where temperature, light, water, and other elements are controlled, allowing for optimum growth conditions all year round. Generally, produce grown in these indoor farms can be produced at a point in the supply chain, physically much closer to the end destination (supermarkets etc.). This, in turn, can lead to big reductions in the miles travelled, potentially reducing food waste.
Continue reading “Up, not out – Is the future of climate-resilient farming vertical?”