Graphic courtesy of Climate Champions.
The world is gathered in Dubai for the 28th Conference of the Parties under the United Nations Framework for Climate Change Convention, otherwise known as COP28. Over a two-week span, government delegations come together to negotiate what actions the world needs to take to achieve a future under 1.5 degrees. This will set the tone for government action and help guide policies to achieve the ambitions of the Paris Agreement. Read More
This piece is now available on Mongabay.
During New York Climate Week, climate leaders will gather together to make essential decisions to mitigate the effects of climate change. It is critical that our oceans are a priority.
The ocean is profoundly underfunded, and yet it is absolutely vital to billions of lives around the world and climate resilience. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, “Life Below Water,” is the least funded of the SDGs — despite the fact that it can support all of the other Sustainable Development Goals. Without serious investment in our oceans, we risk missing the mark overall.
Read about the critical need to achieve this goal to ensure the health of our oceans on Mongabay now.
As global populations grow and fish populations shift or even shrink, one thing is clear: offshore aquaculture in the United States is a matter of when not if. But it’s also a matter of how. Because as demand for safe, delicious, low-carbon seafood grows, we must also ensure that offshore seafood farming in United States waters does not negatively impact marine ecosystems or wild capture fisheries. And according to a new report, Toward an environmentally responsible offshore aquaculture industry in the United States: Ecological risks, remedies, and knowledge gaps, building a robust regulatory framework to ensure that requires more studies and more data.
We talked to some of the report’s authors to better understand what we know, what we need to know, and where we go from here:
By Christopher Free and Willow Battista
Earlier this spring, 1.5 million livestock died in the Horn of Africa. The immediate culprit was a severe, prolonged drought spurred by the growing effects of climate change. It’s a sign of weakening food systems in a warming world. But while land-based food systems are carbon-intensive and increasingly unstable, research shows aquatic food presents real, tangible opportunities to feed more people with fewer climate impacts and a clear message: to solve our food problems, we must look to the oceans. Read More
By Karly Kelso, Director of Climate Resilient Food Systems at EDF, and Michelle Tigchelaar, Research Scientist at Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions
Three billion people depend on our oceans, rivers and lakes for nutritious blue foods. By 2050, our global population is expected to reach 10 billion and global demand for blue foods is expected to roughly double. Blue foods, including fish, shellfish and seaweeds, provide vital nutrients like protein, zinc, vitamin A and omega-3 fatty acids — nutrients important for all sexes and ages but especially for young children and pregnant and breastfeeding women. We must ensure that blue food systems are environmentally sustainable in a changing climate, that they can continue to nourish our global population, and that they contribute to thriving coastal communities and gender equality. Read More
By Jim Leape, Kristian Teleki, Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted and Thomas V. Grasso, Co-chairs, Blue Food Cluster for the U.N. Food Systems Summit 2021
This op-ed was first published in ECO Magazine’s Autumn 2021 edition. View it here.
Our food systems are fragile and worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Conventional food systems, already stretched, have been undermined by outdated supply chains and exposed as vulnerable to climate change. Add to this: