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 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.
Opportunities for African Researchers: small grants and fellowships
African Small Grants Program
START announced its 2009 call for pre-proposals for the African small grants program. This call is issued to scientists in Africa who intend to conduct research on global environmental change. Deadline for applications is 15 August. Access START's website for more details.
African Climate Change Fellowship
Applications are invited for the inaugural round of African Climate Change Fellowships. The African Climate Change Fellowship Program (ACCFP) aims to support African professionals, researchers and graduate students to undertake activities that will enhance their capacities for advancing and applying knowledge for climate change adaptation in Africa. Deadline for applications is 17 September. See Pan-Africa START Secretariat's website fro more details.
Book Release: Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study
The Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study (MAIRS) recently launched a new book on Changes in the Human-Monsoon System in East Asia in the context of global change (edited by Fu et al, published by world scientific). The book is the first in a series of assessments of regional climate change. Irreversible changes to regional biogeochemistry, and terrestrial and marine ecosystem functioning are brought about by increases in population, intensified land use, urbanisation, industrialisation and economic development. These may have global as well as regional consequences. The objectives of the assessment are... click here to read more.
DIVERSITAS Open Science Conference
The Second DIVERSITAS Open Science Conference on "Biodiversity and Society: understanding connections, adapting to change" will be held from 13 - 16 October 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa.
The first call for symposium has been made, deadline 15 September. More details can be found on the Conference website (www.diversitas-osc.org) and flyer.
Announcement: IHDP Open Meeting, Bonn, Germany, April 2009
The IHDP announces that the 7th International Science Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Open Meeting, "Social Challenges of Global Change" originally scheduled for 15 - 19 October 2008, will take place from 26 - 30 April 2009 in Bonn, Germany. The new venue will be the former German Parliament premises at the United Nations University campus. For more details, access the IHDP website.
International Scientific Congress on Climate Change
The focus of the International Association of Research Universities (IARU) Congress, that will convene in Copenhagen, 10 -12 March 2009, is to provide a picture of the "big issues" that the scientific community (including the ESSP) feels are necessary for policy makers to be aware of in order to make informed decisions concerning balancing adaptation and mitigation in societal responses to climate change. The main findings of the congress will feed directly into the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP 15) hosted by the Danish government.
Call for papers deadline: 1 September 2008. Click here for more details.
Conference website, www.climatecongress.ku.dk and flyer.
ESSP at UNFCCC-SBSTA 28
- ESSP Chair, Rik Leemans at UNFCCC-SBSTA 28
The ESSP, its Parent Programmes (DIVERSITAS, IGBP, IHDP, and WCRP), the regional inter-governmental research networks (APN and IAI), and the IPCC presented to the Parties at the UNFCCC-SBSTA 28 in Bonn on 5 June. The goal of the meeting was to present emerging science and enhance dialogue between the research community and the Parties.
Agenda, presentations and summary of the chair can be downloaded here.
SBSTA is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice, for more information on SBSTA 28, click here.
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.
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.
Managing Forests for Climate Change Mitigation
- image credit - H.D. Viktor Boehm
Josep G. Canadell and Michael R. Raupach (Global Carbon Project and CSIRO). Science 13 June 2008.
Forests currently absorb billions of tons of CO2 globally every year, an economic subsidy worth nearly half a trillion dollars if an equivalent sink had to be created in other ways. Concerns about the permanency of forest carbon stocks, difficulties in quantifying stock changes, and the threat of environmental and socioeconomic impacts of large-scale reforestation programs have limited the uptake of forestry activities in climate policies. With political will and the involvement of tropical regions, forests can contribute to climate change protection through carbon sequestration as well as offering economic, environmental, and sociocultural benefits. A key opportunity in tropical regions is the reduction of carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation.
Access the Global Carbon Project website to see manuscript and presentation.
UPDATED: Meeting Calendar
Click here to see most up-to-date meeting calendar of global environmental change-related meetings; including events organised and/or sponsored by the ESSP, its parent programmes and research partners.
Revolutionising Climate Prediction
The goal of the World Modelling Summit for Climate Prediction, jointly organised by IGBP, WCRP, and the World Weather Research Programme (6-9 May, Reading, England) was to develop a strategy to revolutionise the prediction of the climate through the 21st century to help address the threat of climate change. Read more on the Climate Prediction Project.
Global Sea-level Rise and Coastal Vulnerability
The idea for this issue on global sea-level rise and coastal vulnerability (Harvey & Nicholls, Sustainability Science) came from a special session on sea-level rise at the ESSP Open Science Conference. This article is also a useful contribution to the continuing debate following related material reviewed and synthesised in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. Click here to read the article.
APN Call for Proposals
The Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) invites you to submit proposals under two separate programmes, the ARCP programme and the CAPaBLE programme, for funding from April 2009. Click here for more information.
Communicating Science
The Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) has a special newsletter issue on "Communicating Science". In this newsletter, scientists from IAI programs, their partners in society and journalists provide their experiences and views on the communication processes between science and society. To read the newsletter, click here. You can also find out more about the IAI from their website.
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:
