Non-energy emissions - agriculture, forestry & waste: an input into the Long Term Mitigation Scenarios process

Climate change is one of the greatest threats to our planet and to our people. South Africa is especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. At the same time South Africa emits large quantities of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) which are causing climate change: in fact this country is one of the highest emitters per capita per GDP in the world. We are both helping to cause the problem and its victims

Ground-Based Optical Measurements at European Flux Sites: A Review of Methods, Instruments and Current Controversies

This paper reviews the currently available optical sensors, their limitations and opportunities for deployment at Eddy Covariance (EC) sites in Europe. This review is based on the results obtained from an online survey designed and disseminated by the Co-cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action ESO903—“Spectral Sampling Tools for Vegetation Biophysical Parameters and Flux Measurements in Europe” that provided a complete view on spectral sampling activities carried out within the different research teams in European countries. The results have highlighted that a wide variety of optical sensors are in use at flux sites across Europe, and responses further demonstrated that users were not always fully aware of the key issues underpinning repeatability and the reproducibility of their spectral measurements. The key findings of this survey point towards the need for greater awareness of the need for standardisation and development of a common protocol of optical sampling at the European EC sites

Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature: Our Responsibility Green Fields: Feeding the Hungry, Raising the Poor and Protecting Nature in Africa

Abstract Several of the key branching-points on the road to a sustainable human future in the 21 st century will play out on the continent of Africa. This is for several reasons: Africa is the last continent to begin its demographic transition, therefore much of the future growth in the human population will take place there; Africa is the last place with large areas of agriculturally-suitable soil and climate conditions for major extension of croplands; and many aspects of inequity, from global to local scales, find expression there. This convergence of factors presents threats of highly undesirable outcomes for the global climate, biodiversity loss, widening poverty, hunger and disempowerment. It also offers opportunities to embark on a different development path with much more optimistic consequences. An advantage of being last in the development sequence is that it is possible to learn from those who have been before -Africa commences its phase of rapid change with more available knowledge than at any time in the past. Will the same dysfunctional dynamics that have unfolded in the past and in other places continue to dominate in the future in Africa, or will it be possible to transition to a better path? What would it take to do so? The New Scramble for Africa Large parts of tropical Africa are on the cusp of major social and land transformation. In the next three decades the continent will be in a comparable situation to the Amazon and Southeast Asia over the past three decades: the locus of major conversion of forest to croplands, simultaneous migration of people into cities, and potentially large and rapid improvements in nutrition and income. These rapid changes, which are already underway, have both internal and external drivers. The world as a whole faces a substantial food crisis by mid-centur

Session B4Management for sustainable use — Global climate change and rangelands

The IPCC Third Assessment Report confirms that the evidence for global climate change is now stronger than ever. While efforts to minimise climate change are vital, some degree of change is already inevitable. The key questions for rangelands are no longer whether climate change will occur, but how to adapt to it, and if possible, how to mitigate its negative impacts. The presentations in this session will move beyond the prediction of impacts, to the analysis of strategies at the farm scale and at national scale which could help to make rangelands and rangeland livelihoods sustainable even in the presence of climate change. African Journal of Range & Forage Science 2003, 20(2): 153-15

The U.K. national study of abuse and neglect among older people.

This article reports briefly on the first UK prevalence study (undertaken in 2006-7) of the abuse and neglect of older people living in the community. Older people living in the community who reported mistreatment and neglect (2.6 per cent) equate to about 227,000 of the population aged 66 years and over. If figures are broadened to include neighbours and acquaintances, prevalence increases from 2.6 per cent to 4.0 per cent. This article identifies risk factors of loneliness, depression and poor quality of life. It suggests that nurses have a key role in day-to-day clinical practice in enabling older people to report abuse and neglect