COAL + ICE Podcast - Ep5: Feeding the World in a Climate Change Future

Ep5: Feeding the World in a Climate Change Future

03/23/22 • 47 min

We've all got to eat. And climate change is throwing us new challenges as to how to feed a global population that's getting bigger, more urban, and more affluent -- and make sure the world's poorest have enough nutritious food too.
This would have been a challenge without climate change. With it, farmers need to adapt to wilder weather, less predictable rainfall, and shifting growing zones that sometimes mean they can't plant what they long did, and have to find new crops that are resilient to the new normal.
Meanwhile, efforts are afoot to cut emissions that agriculture itself contributes to climate change.
In this episode, breaking down this complex set of issues in simple terms, with on-the-ground knowledge are:
Channing Arndt, director of the environment, production, technology division at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
&
Dawit Mekonnen, research fellow in Ethiopia for the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Previous Episode

Ep4: Going, Going, Gone: Biodiversity & Climate Change

Enjoy nature? Well, do it while you can. We’re losing as many as 200 species a day, scientists say – plants, animals, birds, bugs – with cascading effects for all other species, including humans. And it's humans – our factories, cars, planes and power plants, our sprawling cities and mono-culture farms – who have disrupted complex ecosystems and are speeding climate change.

Dr. Gretta Pecl and Sakhile Koketso join this episode to discuss the many impacts of biodiversity loss, the challenges of combatting climate change at various scales, why biodiversity matters to all of us, and how our current trajectory is on track to making us the ‘crappiest ancestors ever’ for all our future generations – though we still have time to avoid the worst, with the right actions now.

Guest Bios

Dr. Gretta Pecl is a professor of marine ecology at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania, and the Director of the Centre for Marine Socioecology. She leads many projects and initiatives, including the Future Seas project, the citizen science project Redmap Australia, and the Species on the Move conference. She is a lead author on the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report on Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation.

Sakhile Koketso heads Science, Policy and Governance at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). She has also worked with Whitebird Environ Consult Inc., the Green Climate Fund, the Kalahari Conservation Society, the United Nations Development Programme, and with national parks in Botswana, her country of origin.

Guest Host Bio

Taili Ni, assistant producer of the COAL+ICE Podcast, is a program officer at Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations.
Clownfish episode photo: Copyright Bing Lin.

Next Episode

Ep6: Making Our Urban Future Livable

Most of us on earth now live in cities. By 2050, more than two-thirds of us will. And by the end of this century, demographers predict, 85% of the world’s population will live in cities. By then, demographers estimate, cities like Lagos in Nigeria and Mumbai in India will have 60 million or more inhabitants, and much of the world's urban growth will be in Africa.

What will this mean for climate change, and how will climate change affect growing urban populations? Much depends on whether smart decisions are made now about how expanding cities develop, and how existing cities -- especially in energy-intensive countries like the United States -- adjust to be more climate friendly.
With guests:
Ping Huang, a post-doctoral research associate at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield, UK, and a native of Shenzhen, China, working on urban energy transition and climate governance.
Basirat Oyalowo, a researcher at the department of Estate Management, University of Lagos, Nigeria, where she also manages the Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development. Her research in housing studies and sustainability broadly focuses on issues around informality, resilience, housing finance, regeneration and real estate sustainability.
Linda Westman, a post-doctoral research associate at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield, UK, whose work focuses on urban sustainability transformation and the governance of sustainability and climate change, including a focus on China.
Siqi Zheng: is an MIT professor focusing on urban and real estate sustainability. She directs MIT's Center for Real Estate, and creator and director of its Sustainable Urbanization Lab.

COAL + ICE Podcast - Ep5: Feeding the World in a Climate Change Future

Transcript

3-23-2022

Ep. 5: Food in a Climate Change Future, COAL+ICE Podcast, transcript
00:00: Mary Kay Magistad: So here’s a good news, bad news kind of thing.

The good news is -- the world’s middle class is growing. More people are living more comfortable lives – earning more, spending more, eating better, getting the comforts and conveniences many of us take for granted – air conditioning, central heating, appliances, computers, cars, air trav