Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP)
The ESSP is a partnership for the integrated study of the Earth System, the ways that it is changing, and the implications for global and regional sustainability.
The urgency of the challenge is great: In the present era, global environmental changes are both accelerating and moving the earth system into a state with no analogue in previous history.
To learn more about the ESSP, clink on links to access Strategy Paper, brochure and a video presentation by the Chair of the ESSP Scientific Committee, Prof. Dr. Rik Leemans of Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
The Earth System is the unified set of physical, chemical, biological and social components, processes and interactions that together determine the state and dynamics of Planet Earth, including its biota and its human occupants.
Earth System Science is the study of the Earth System, with an emphasis on observing, understanding and predicting global environmental changes involving interactions between land, atmosphere, water, ice, biosphere, societies, technologies and economies.
Planet Under Pressure 2012 International Conference
The Planet Under Pressure conference, 26 - 29 March 2012, London, UK will provide a comprehensive update of the pressure Earth is under. The conference will discuss solutions at scales to move societies on to a sustainable pathway. It will provide scientific leadership towards the 2012 UN conference on Sustainable Development - Rio +20.
This conference is organised by GEC research programmes: IGBP, DIVERSITAS, IHDP and WCRP and their scientific partnership (ESSP).
Visit Conference wbsite: www.planetunderpressure2012.net
Reduced registration rate ends 20 January 2012. Register now.
Integrated Global Change Research
The ESSP and partners - the German National Committee on Global Change Research (NKGCF), International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Science Counil (ISSC) - will embark on a new study on 'Integrated Global Change Research: Co-designing knowledge across scientific fields, national borders and user groups'. An international workshop (funded by the German Research Foundation) will convene in Berlin, 7 - 9 March 2012, designed to elucidate the dimensions of integration, to identify and analyse best practice examples, to exchange ideas about new concepts of integration, to discuss emerging challenges for science, and to begin discussions about balancing academic research and stakeholder involvement.
International Innovation Interview ESSP Scientific Committee Chair, Professor Rik Leemans
The Earth system is a complex gestalt of processes and interactions. It seems we are only just realising the scale of the challenges we face in understanding its intricacies. Chair of the ESSP Scientific Committee, Professor Dr Rik Leemans, explains how the ESSP is helping find solutions to global challenges. To read full interview, click here.
International Innovation is a leading publication that provides interviews, content and presentation from scientific, technology and research communities. Click on links to access interviews of the Executive Directors of ESSP parent research programmes (DIVERSITAS, IGBP, IHDP and WCRP).
The Future of the World's Climate
The Future of the World's Climate (edited by Ann Henderson-Sellers and Kendal McGuffie) offers a state-of-the-art overview - based on the latest climate science modelling data and projections available - of our understanding of future climates. The book is dedicated to Stephen H Schneider, a world leader in climate interpretation and communication. The Future of the World's Climate summarizes our current understanding of climatic prediction and examines how that understanding depends on a keen grasp of integrated Earth system models and human interaction with climate. This book brings climate science up to date beyond the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report. More details.
Social Scientists Call for More Research on Human Dimensions of Global Change
Scientists across all disciplines share great concern that our planet is in the process of crossing dangerous biophysical tipping points. The results of a new large-scale global survey among 1,276 scholars from the social sciences and the humanities demonstrates that the human dimensions of the problem are equally important but severely under-addressed.
The survey conducted by the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP-UNU) Secretariat in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Social Science Council (ISSC), identifies the following as highest research priority areas:
1) Equity/equality and wealth/resource distribution;
2) Policy, political systems/governance, and political economy;
3) Economic systems, economic costs and incentives;
4) Globalization, social and cultural transitions.
Green Screen: Climate Fix Flicks
Green Screen: Climate Fix Flicks is an exciting new short film competition that is now calling for entries. The organisers are looking for creative films that explore ways to alleviate the coming climate crisis such as the positive benefits of moves towards a clean energy future. Entries must be received by 10 February 2012.
WCRP Open Science Conference - Climate Research in Service to Society. 24 - 28 October 2011, Denver, Colorado, USA
The WCRP assembled for the first time ever its entire research community, and engaged other key international research programmes, in a major Open Science Conference (OSC), 24 - 28 October 2011. Through a unique synthesis of presented research findings, the OSC assessed our current state of knowledge on climate variability and change, identified the most urgent scientific issues and research challenges, and ascertained how the WCRP can best facilitate research and develop partnerships critical for progress.
Click here for more details.
Representative Concentration Pathways: New scenarios for the climate research community
A new special issue of the journal climatic change describes four new scenarios for the climate research community: the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). The RCPs describe a wide range of potential futures for the main drivers of climate change: greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions and land use. The scenarios cover the range from high emission futures to scenarios consistent with the two degree celsius target. More details.
Coral Reefs: winners and losers
- Credit: Joseph Maina
A new map published recently in Science identifies reefs that can still be saved. The research team that created the map hopes that this tool will support conservation efforts.
The map pinpoints where some corals (green dots) are located where climatic conditions are likely to allow them to survive global warming, whereas others (red dots) are likely to die early from more adverse regional conditions.
Access Science article here for more details.
Challenges of Integration: call for abstracts
The ESSP and partners are convening a session at the Planet Under Pressure Conference (London, 26 - 29 March 2011) on the ''Challenges of Integration''. More details.
Call for abstracts deadline: 16 September 2011
Future Climate Change 'Hotspots' and Food Insecurity
A new study has matched future climate change 'hotspots' with regions already suffering chronic food problems to identify highly vulnerable populations, chiefly in Africa and South Asia, but potentially in China and Latin America as well, where in less than forty years, the prospect of shorter, hotter or drier growing seasons could imperil hundreds of millions of already impoverished people. The report (PDF), "Mapping Hotspots of Climate Change and Food Insecurity in the Global Tropics" can be downloaded here.
Land for Bioenergy: Ecological, Economic and Societal Aspects
Increasing bioenergy production is one of the pathways to meet global CO2 emission reduction targets. The land use changes necessary to increase crop productivity for bioenergy are, however, located mainly in tropical/sub-tropical regions with high biodiversity (e.g. Southeast Asia, Latin America and Southern Africa). The objective of an upcoming ESSP / DIVERSITAS workshop (Lorentz Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands, 14 - 17 November 2011) is to investigate the ecological, societal and economic costs and benefits of terrestrial land use change for bioenergy production, and to develop interdisciplinary approaches to quantify and integrate these aspects.
UNFCCC SBSTA 34 - Research Dialogue
The ESSP participated in an UNFCCC SBSTA 34 coordinated 'Research Dialogue' workshop in Bonn, Germany on 2 - 3 June 2011. Regional and international research organisations highlighted recent scientific findings to 200 climate negotiators. ESSP affiliated presentations can be downloaded:
Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (Bruce Campbell)
Global Carbon Cycle (Corrine Le Quere)
Global Environmental Change and Human Health (Andy Haines)
Click here for more details.
Joint the Debate on Bioenergy: an Earth system approach
The ESSP in collaboration with Debategraph (www.debategraph.org) invites you to join a debate on bioenergy.
Debategraph helps anyone debate key societal issues by building and sharing ideas using interactive web-based maps. The aim of this map is to weave together discussions to gain a broad understanding of bioenergy in the context of Earth system sustainability.
Click on link to join the debate: Bioenergy: an Earth system perspective
2009 Global Carbon Budget
Scientists report the annual growth rate of atmospheric CO2 was 1.6 parts per million in 2009. This is below the average for the period 2000 - 2008 of 1.9 ppm per year. The mean growth rate for the previous 20 years was about 1.5 ppm per year. This increase brought the atmospheric CO2 concentration to 387 ppm by the end of 2009, 39 per cent above the concentration at the start of the industrial revolution (about 280 ppm in 1750). The present concentration is the highest during at least the past 2 million years.
Researchers from the Global Carbon Project attribute the global financial crisis for the abrupt decline in fossil fuel emissions by 1.3 per cent in 2009. Professor Pierre Friedlingstein, lead author of the research, said: "The drop in CO2 emissions is less than half that anticipated a year ago. This is because the drop in World Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was less than anticipated and the carbon intensity of world GDP, which is the amount of CO2 released per unit of GDP, improved by only 0.7 per cent in 2009 - well below its long-term average of 1.7 per cent per year".
For more information, access the Global Carbon Project website.
Food Security and Global Environmental Change
Food security and global environmental change, a synthesis book edited by John Ingram, Polly Ericksen and Diana Liverman of GECAFS has just been published. The book provides a major, accessible synthesis of the current state of knowledge and thinking on the relationship between GEC and food security. Click here for further information.
GECAFS is featured in the latest UNESCO-SCOPE-UNEP Policy Brief - No. 12 entitled Global Environmental Change and Food Security. The brief reviews current knowledge, highlights trends and controversies, and is a useful reference for policy planners, decision makers and stakeholders in the community.
Global Carbon Project - 10 years
The Global Carbon Project (GCP) was established in 2001 in recognition of the scientific challenge and critical importance of the carbon cycle for Earth's sustainability. Ten years on, the GCP continues to work with the international community to lead and promote a coordinated research effort. The brochure "10 Years of Advancing Knowledge on the Global Carbon Cycle and its Management" summarizes some of the achievements of these first ten years.
For further information, please access:
- GCP - 10 Years (low res) (ppt, 7.7mb)
- GCP - 10 Years (high res) (ppt, 33mb)
GWSP Digital Water Atlas
The Global Water System Project (GWSP) has launched its Digital Water Atlas. The purpose and intent of the Digital Water Atlas is to describe the basic elements of the Global Water System, the interlinkages of the elements and changes in the state of the Global Water System by creating a consistent set of annotated maps. The project will especially promote the collection, analysis and consideration of social science data on the global basis. Click here to access the GWSP Digital Water Atlas.
Carbon Neutral
The ESSP office was carbon neutral in its office operations and travel in 2010. The ESSP supported the Gujarat wind project in India. More details.
The Global Carbon Project has published an ESSP commissioned report, "carbon reductions and offsets" with a number of recommendations for individuals and institutions who want to participate in this voluntary market. Click here to learn more and to download the report from the GCP website.
The ESSP is a joint initiative of four global environmental change programmes:
