Himalayan glaciers – not melting as fast as once thought?
I came across an interesting article whilst reading a recent issue of Science (13 November) that bucks the trend of many gloomy climate change reports over the last few months. It seems that Himalayan glaciers are not melting as fast as is commonly believed. A recent report by senior glaciologist Vijay Kumar Raina, formerly of…
Focusing food security efforts where they are needed
The current World Summit on Food Security , as noted in an earlier blog, is a major effort to focus agriculture to lower risks of starvation and economic insecurity. But how can researchers and planners work out what is needed where? John Dixon of ACIAR and his co-authors describe a major Food and Agriculture Organization –…
FAO World Summit on Food Security
Photo credit: FAO Over one billion people live in chronic hunger… Every six seconds, a child dies of hunger. World leaders convened at Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Headquarters for the World Summit on Food Security today adopted a declaration pledging renewed commitment to eradicate hunger from the face of the earth sustainably and at…
Legs-up-the-wall pose – Yoga’s cure for almost all complaints
I am a keen yoga follower, who practices yoga regularly, including Tuesday’s lunchtime class here at CABI. I also receive daily yoga insights from the Yoga Journal giving tips on poses to try at home. I thought I’d share today’s tip on Viparita Karani or ‘legs-up-the-wall pose’ with the 'handpicked' readers, as it is a…
Going Veggie to save the planet – does what you eat really matter to our planet?
According to Lord Stern of Brentford, what we eat does matter and we should be eating less meat or even becoming vegetarians to reduce greenhouse gases emissions and, therefore, stop global warming from increasing and climate change from happening.
International Day of Climate Action – 24 October 2009
“Scientists say that 350ppm CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity.” Read on to find out why.
Mobile phone technology rings true
In the West, we live in a world of information overload. At our fingertips we have instant access to a wealth of knowledge, and then some…We struggle to keep pace with rapidly developing technology but this is only a problem for the well heeled. In the developing world the story is starkly different. How we…
Climate change – the influence on food security
“When it rains, it does not rain on one roof only” This is a saying from the home village in western Kenya of my friend and colleague Dennis Rangi, CABI’s Executive Director for International Development. He said this in his introduction to the CABI Summit in London which I though was particularly apt as I…
Better farm productivity is not enough – We need to “talk more about losing less”
If humanity is to continue to avert disaster and the Malthusian nightmare as growing populations exert ever increasing pressures on scarce earth resources, then we need some new solutions to old problems in agriculture, and we need to use some of the old solutions a lot better. In particular we need to recognise that we…