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.
Click here for ESSP Briefing Paper.
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 biodata 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.
A Strategy for Global Environmental Change Research in Africa
The African Network for Earth System Science (AfricanNESS) science plan and implementation strategy "A Strategy for Global Environmental Change Research in Africa" has been completed and is now available for download. The plan focuses on four top-level issues: food and nutritional security; water resources; health; and ecosystem integrity. Framed around these issues, the science plan describes a strategy for global environmental change research in Africa that concentrates on eight thematic clusters: rainfall, land cover, livelihoods, cities, diseases and pests, Africa and the earth system, marine, and integrated development. Examples of possible research programs are provided for each of these areas. Finally, the plan outlines a way of implementing and organizing a network of earth system scientists in Africa, and connecting them to scientists around the world. The science plan was developed over a period of three years through the collective efforts of many African scientists, as well as colleagues from outside the African continent. The editors gratefully acknowledge the support from the US National Science Foundation, the South Africa National Research Foundation, IGBP, ESSP, START, and the ICSU Regional Office for Africa. Printed copies of the report are available on request from the IGBP Secretariat; please contact Sofia Roger, IGBP Information Officer.
Click here for electronic version of the report.
Welcome - WCRP Director
The ESSP would like to welcome Dr. Ghassem R. Asrar, who recently took up his duties as Director of the World Climate Research Programme. Dr. Asrar has an outstanding career at NASA as Associate Administrator of the Office of Earth Science from 1998 to 2004 and then, until January 2005, as Deputy Associate Administrator for the NASA Science Directorate where he was responsible for a broad range of earth observation satellites. He then served as Deputy Administrator for Natural Resources and Agricultural Systems with the Agricultural Research Service, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2006 - 2008.
4th IGBP Congress: Sustainable Livelihoods in a Changing Earth System. Cape Town, South Africa, 5-9 May 2008
IGBP Congress goals:
- To develop ways for IGBP to apply Earth System science and improve IGBP relevance to civil society, the private sector and the policy community;
- To provide a forum for cross-project interaction and integration across the breadth of the programme;
- To identify where IGBP work can better contribute to addressing mitigation and adaptation, large-scale pilot projects on sustainability science and institutional networking;
- To suggest pathways to sustainable solutions, including mitigation, innovation and adaptation;
- To address the challenges of Global Environmental Change and development in Africa; and
- To develop a lasting network linking the scientific, political and private enterprises, collectively engaged in developing closer global-scale environmental management collaboration.
Click here to learn more about the IGBP Congress.
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 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:
