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POPSThe coming famine "In light of all these hurdles, as I see it, the challenge is to double world food output by 2050 using less land, far less water and fewer nutrients – all in the teeth of increasing rates of drought. And we need to do it sustainably." "I believe we are quite capable of solving these issues through good science and good policy. In the first instance, we need to massively increase global public investment in agricultural research and development. Then we need to make sure the fruits of that research reach farmers everywhere. I also think that commercial wild harvests, such as fishing and forestry, should be phased out in favour of sustainable farming that dovetails with the local environment."
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POPSLarge methane release could cause abrupt climate change “This is a major concern because it’s possible that only a little warming can unleash this trapped methane. Unzippering the methane reservoir could potentially warm the Earth tens of degrees, and the mechanism could be geologically very rapid. Such a violent, zipper-like opening of the clathrates could have triggered a catastrophic climate and biogeochemical reorganization of the ocean and atmosphere around 635 million years ago.”
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POPSWho gets to determine the "right" climate for the Earth? As technology evolves, if we are to dodge global disaster(s), there comes a time when, as a specie, we will have to assume greater and greater responsibility regarding issues that till lately were decided for us by the arbitrary forces of nature. We stand no chance of a sane future unless we accept total responsibility for this planet and all its sentient and sub sentient inhabitants. This is to my mind the greatest challenge of the future.
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POPSThey say they want a revolution Increasing computing power 10,000 times — to speeds in the hundreds of petaflops — would allow modellers to study simulations at the kilometre scale, enabling better predictions on the activity of hurricanes and, eventually, the local deep convection that transfers much energy into the upper atmosphere (see 'A real solution?'). This research could then be fed into operational models.
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POPSPlant A Tree And Save The Earth? Global warming is fast emerging as one of the most critical problems of our time. It might well be too late, yet our working assumption must be that if we address it seriously we can solve it, perhaps even to gain a new insights how to manage planet scale processes.
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