Tag Archives: food resources

Ecology resources for students: Part 1

Good afternoon!

I’m back with another set of bookmarks for students and teachers. Because I’ve taught the IB Environmental systems and societies course for several years, this set of online resources is closest to my heart. Some of these links are here simply because I think they’re cool or fun. Many may also be applicable for studying biology and chemistry as well. Let’s get to it:

Happy learning!

Cheers,

Mr K

Human Impact on Ocean Fisheries

Cod fisherman with their haul, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Cod fisherman with their haul, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The article linked below outlines the impact of human population growth on global marine fisheries. It has been well-established through scientific research that as people become wealthier, they consume more protein. And as Earth’s human population continues to grow, the pressure on fisheries becomes two-fold: not only are there more people fishing (population growth), but those people are becoming wealthier (economic growth) and eating more seafood per person. This article ties in brilliantly to ESS Topic 3 – Human Populations, Resource Use, and Carrying Capacity.

Click here for the full article.

Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience

That’s the title of a recent (June 2013) publication from the World Bank, which outlines the probable impacts of continued global climate change. Among the highlights of the article, according to the official press release:

  • This report, part II in a series, looks at likely impacts of 2°C and 4°C warming across three vulnerable regions.
  • It describes risks to agriculture and livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa, the rise in sea-level and devastation to coastal areas likely in South East Asia, and water extremes facing South Asia.
  • Turn Down the Heat warns that poor coastal urban communities are among the most vulnerable to climate change.

As a poor, coastal, urban community in Sub-Saharan Africa, Dar fits this description perfectly. Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, talks about the perils of climate change in the brief video embedded below.

Link

Does Climate Change Pose a Risk to Food Supplies?

According to this New York Times article, the UN’s IPCC – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the largest group of scientists investigating global climate patterns – “rising temperatures will have some beneficial effects on crops in some places, but that globally they will make it harder for crops to thrive”. The report is just a draft for now (the final report won’t be released until March 2014), but it indicates that the IPCC has new data indicating that crop production will gradually decrease over the next century. That could be particularly troubling, especially considering that Earth’s human population is expected to reach 9 billion people by mid-century.

Quote

The Future of Food – Fake Meat?

Infographic from screen capture, The Gates Notes

Infographic from screen capture, The Gates Notes

Follow the link below to read about Bill Gates’ take on future developments in food production, specifically concerning the global increase in meat consumption over the past couple of decades. Here’s what the illustrious Mr Gates has to say about the issue on his personal blog, The Gates Notes:

Meat consumption worldwide has doubled in the last 20 years, and it is expected to double again by 2050. This is happening in large part because economies are growing and people can afford more meat. That’s all good news. But raising meat takes a great deal of land and water and has a substantial environmental impact. Put simply, there’s no way to produce enough meat for 9 billion people. Yet we can’t ask everyone to become vegetarians. We need more options for producing meat without depleting our resources.

Mr Gates’ comments align perfectly with some of the issues that we’ll study in ESS Topic 3.5 – Food Resources. This issue is particularly relevant to us here in Tanzania as well, especially considering that, according to the UN,  Dar es Salaam is one of the world’s fastest growing cities.

Image Credit: www.bbc.co.uk

Image Credit: http://www.bbc.co.uk

Click here to read the full article at The Gates Notes.