Henry Kamen, author of Early Modern European Society, recounts the debate over resources and the themes of conservation taking root across Europe in early modern times. These issues are still relevant today to the debates arising from COP26. Environmental Issues in Preindustrial Europe Among the most serious environmental issues in preindustrial
Daniel Esty, editor of A Better Planet: Forty Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future explains the Zero Carbon Action Plan and talks about why A Better Planet is relevant for the discussions arising from COP26. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Climate change will be at centre stage as global leaders gather in Glasgow for the November 1-12 COP26
Kent H. Redford and William M. Adams explain why synthetic biology and nature-based solutions are important for the discussions arising from COP26. Biodiversity and Climate Change The effects of climate change impact all aspects of life on Earth, and greater changes are anticipated. The evolution of species is being affected,
Jo Handelsman, Kayla Cohen, Garth Harmsworth, and Shaun Awatere tell us about the importance of soil and why the voices of indigenous people must be heard at the COP26 table. The 2021 United Nations climate change conference, COP26, marks the world’s next big step toward limiting global warming to 1.5
Henry Kamen— Among the most serious environmental issues in preindustrial Europe was that of the disappearance of forests, which had at one time covered the greater part of the land surface. Already in medieval times there were protests against the destruction of forest land in order to create more arable
Shaila Seshia Galvin— These days, the word organic typically conjures notions of food that is natural, pure, and ecologically produced. Recent decades have seen the rapid expansion of organic agriculture, with the amount of land area under certification, the number of producers, and the volume of sales all witnessing rapid
W.M. Adams and K.H. Redford— On Gough Island, a steep speck of land deep in the South Atlantic, giant mice eat albatross chicks as they sit on their nests. They are house mice, accidental arrivals on the ships of long-dead sealers. But they have lost their secretive, timid, mousy ways.
Peter F. Sale— Coral reefs are strewn across the tropical ocean like so many pearls from a broken necklace. Some are barely a few hundred meters from other reefs, but many are many kilometers from any other shallow water habitat. Yet nearly all the species that live on coral reefs
David Western— Over the course of barely two centuries, subsistence herding and farming societies tied to rainfall and the seasons have coalesced into a global society and interwoven economy. Amboseli, situated beneath the rising mass of Kilimanjaro in Kenya, gives a snapshot of the last vestiges of the Neolithic Age
James Ladyman & Karoline Wiesner— In 2015 representatives of 196 states agreed to hold the warming of average global atmospheric temperature above pre-industrial levels to well below 2°C, and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C—this is the Paris Agreement. However, just a few years later, in 2019, warming