Assessing the climate impacts of Chinese dietary choices using a telecoupled global food trade and local land use framework

Global emissions trajectories developed to meet the 2⁰C temperature target are likely to rely on the widespread deployment of negative emissions technologies and/or the implementation of substantial terrestrial carbon sinks. Such technologies include afforestation, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), but mitigation options for agriculture appear limited. For example, using the Global Calculator tool (http://www.globalcalculator.org/), under a 2⁰C pathway, the ‘forests and other land use’ sector is projected to become a major carbon sink, reaching -15 GtCO2e yr-1 by 2050, compared to fossil emissions of 21 GtCO2e yr-1. At the same time, rates of agricultural emissions remain static at about 6 GtCO2e yr-1, despite increasing demands for crop and livestock production to meet the forecast dietary demands of the growing and increasingly wealthy global population. Emissions in the Global Calculator are sensitive to the assumed global diet, and particularly to the level and type of meat consumption, which in turn drive global land use patterns and agricultural emissions. Here we assess the potential to use a modified down-scaled Global Calculator methodology embedded within the telecoupled global food trade framework, to estimate the agricultural emissions and terrestrial carbon stock impacts in China and Brazil, arising from a plausible range of dietary choices in China. These dietary choices are linked via telecoupling mechanisms to Brazilian crop production (e.g. Brazilian soy for Chinese animal feed provision) and drive land and global market dynamics. ‘Spill-over’ impacts will also be assessed using the EU and Malawi as case studies

Seleção de descritores na caracterização de germoplasma de Paspalum sp. por meio de componentes principais.

Foram avaliados 15 descritores reprodutivos, 22 vegetativos e 21 agronômicos, em que os agronômicos compreenderam sete descritores para a avaliação de inverno e sete descritores para a avaliação de verão, com o objetivo de selecionar os melhores descritores botânicos-agronômicos para caracterizar acessos das espécies Paspalum guenoarum e Paspalum plicatulum. Utilizou-se a análise de componentes principais para descartar os descritores reprodutivos, vegetativos e agronômicos, respectivamente, do conjunto inicialmente considerado. Foi possível selecionar, por intermédio desta técnica, oito descritores, considerados mais importantes na descrição da variabilidade presente na coleção de acesso do germoplasma estudado

Etanol, meio ambiente e tecnologia: reflexões sobre a experiência brasileira.

O trabalho apresenta uma breve reflexão sobre os principais aspectos ambientais e tecnológicos da experiência brasileira voltada à produção e ao uso de etanol a partir da cana-de-açúcar. Ao se analisar toda a cadeia produtiva do etanol, observa-se que o aproveitamento estratégico de todos os subprodutos da cana-de-açúcar é condição essencial para a sustentabilidade do processo produtivo. Por sua vez, a queima da cana-de-açúcar para colheita e a expansão da monocultura canavieira são fatores que requerem maior atenção. O trabalho demonstra que a produção de etanol de cana-deaçúcar contribui para a sustentabilidade ambiental e que seu uso como combustível renovável é favorável em relação aos combustíveis fósseis

Socio-Environmental Assessment of Gender Equality, Pastoralism, Agriculture and Climate Information in Rural Communities of Northern Tanzania

Investment in climate services in support of climate change adaptation has increased, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. As this is a relatively new field of practice, little research is available to inform the design of these interventions. The aim of this research is to contribute to building knowledge around this theme. Given the gender dynamics inherent in decision making on livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa, we focus on differences in the use of climate services between men and women. We use quantitative and qualitative methods to critically discuss and review the barriers that exist for the use of climate information in making livelihoods related decisions. The results indicate that a link exists between households accessing productive assets and taking action on the basis of climate information, and revealed a large gender inequality across all the assessed variables. What emerged clearly is the need for interventions to be based on needs assessments to ensure that services provided are usable

Dinâmica populacional de Acromyrmex crassispinus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) em um plantio de Pinus taeda.

Resumo

The use of system dynamics for energy and environmental education

The use of system dynamics as a learning tool for developing sustainable energy strategies and environmental education has advanced in recent years with the availability of new modelling software and webtools. Among the existing models, we highlight the online 2050 Calculators, which aim at simulating scenarios for greenhouse gas emissions, energy planning, sustainable land use, and food consumption. The objective of this study is to assess the available calculators and their contribution to an interdisciplinary education via systems thinking. We carried out a review of the existing models worldwide and ran some of the tools with students from three different postgraduate programmes at master’s level at Imperial College London (United Kingdom) and IFP School (France), whilst also assessing their individual views afterwards. The assessments were conducted once a year during three subsequent years: 2019, 2020, and 2021. The results are discussed under the epistemology of critical pedagogy, showing that the use of webtools, such as the 2050 Calculators, can significantly contribute to the students’ environmental awareness and political engagement, providing important lessons about the use of system dynamics for policy and science education

Capacitação técnica em sanidade florestal.

EVINCI. Resumo