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Pick Up1084. The Need to Simultaneously Address Biodiversity and Climate Change
Later this year, world leaders will convene for two separate international conferences to tackle biodiversity loss and climate change. A paper published in the Journal of Applied Ecology highlighted the need to address biodiversity and climate change issues simultaneously. -
Pick Up1083. Planetary Trust for Intergenerational Equity
Ahead of the UN Summit of the Future to be held in September 2024, the Planetary Trust concept is attracting attention as a foundation for conserving the Earth System to achieve intergenerational equity. -
Pick Up1082.Challenges with Food System Transformation Intervention Assessments
The process of food system transformation is complex and unpredictable. A paper published in The Journal of Nutrition suggests the importance of using the Theories of Change to design flexible intervention and evaluation methods using multiple methods, assuming a variety of outcomes, including trade-offs, synergies, and unintended consequences, in order to rigorously assess the impact of food system interventions. -
Pick Up1081. Building a Sustainable Food Supply Chain
In order to ensure that the world's population is adequately fed, we rely on a highly intertwined food supply chain. The World Economic Forum blog discusses the importance of multi-layered cooperation and partnerships among food supply chain actors. -
Pick Up1080. Southeast Asia Liaison Office News: Thailand National Science and Technology Fair 2024 Opens
The Thailand National Science and Technology Fair 2024 (NST), the largest science and technology fair in Thailand, opened on August 16th (running until August 25th), attracting approximately 200,000 Thai students. -
Pick Up1079. A New Crisis for the Earth System
A paper published last September concluded that, of the nine planetary boundaries, six have crossed the danger zone: climate change, biosphere integrity, biogeochemical cycles (nitrogen and phosphorus), land use change, freshwater use, and novel entities. A paper published in Nature Ecology and Evolution on July 15 proposed that aquatic deoxygenation, observed in both freshwater and saltwater ecosystems around the world, should be considered as a new planetary boundary. -
Pick Up1078. Temperature in July 2024
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the average monthly temperature in July 2024 was 16.91°C, 0.04°C below the highest recorded in July 2023, making it the second-hottest temperature on record, terminating the 13th consecutive months of breaking record temperature. In turn, as July 22, 2024 was reported to be the hottest day in history, with extreme heat events were reported across the world. -
Pick Up1077. The Movement of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere
Using high-resolution data, NASA released a video visualizing the movement of atmospheric carbon dioxide gas concentrations driven by wind and atmospheric circulation during the period from January to March 2020. This high-resolution video captures carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, forest fires, and urban areas, and shows how these emissions spread across continents and oceans. -
Pick Up1076. The Need to Avoid Overshoot
Earth Overshoot Day in 2024 was set for August 1, as humanity is estimated to consume 1.7 Earths worth of resources. Japan alone is consuming resources equivalent to 6.6 times its own capacity to meet its residents’ demand for nature. A paper published in the journal Nature Communications emphasized the urgent need to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to maintain the stability of the Earth system. -
Pick Up1075. Global Food Price Trends for July 2024
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released its global food price trends on August 2. The average value in July 2024 was 120.8 points, a slight decline from the previous month as the decline in the grain price index outpaced the increase in vegetable oil, meat, and sugar prices. This figure was 3.1% lower than the previous year and only 24.7% lower than the historic high of 160.3 points in March 2022. -
Pick Up1074. Potential of Novel Agrifood Technologies
In recent years, technological innovation in the agrifood sector has been progressing rapidly. The United Nations Development Programme report has identified a wide range of innovations and methods that can contribute to improving the efficiency and productivity of conventional agriculture as 'novel agrifood technologies'. -
Pick Up1073. Atmospheric Methane Uptake by Tree Woody Surfaces
The study, published in Nature, examines woody surface methane exchange in tropical, temperate, and boreal forests. It shows that trees are net methane sinks and that the protection and reforestation of tropical and temperate broad-leaved forests have the potential to contribute to climate change mitigation to a greater extent than previously assumed. -
Pick Up1072. Definition, Impacts, and Causes of Heat Waves
It seems that the frequency and intensity of heat waves have been increasing recently not only in Japan, but around the world as well. The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has compiled a summary of the definition, impacts, and impact mechanism of heat waves on its website. -
Pick Up1071. Global Food Expenditure Patterns
In the development of agriculture, trade, and public health policies resulting from the evolution of global food systems, it is crucial to determine whether the demand for food by consumers in low-income countries will become "Westernized" as incomes rise. A paper published in the journal Nature Food examined total food expenditure in more than 90 countries over the past few decades and found that food spending patterns in low-income countries do not necessarily converge universally with those in high-income countries. -
Pick Up1070. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report (SOFI) 2024
On July 24, the 2024 edition of "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report: SOFI" was released by United Nations agencies (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, WHO), highlighting that in 2023, one in 11 people in the world and one in five in Africa were estimated to have faced hunger. -
Pick Up1069. Extreme Heat Epidemic
With a high of 17.16°C on July 22, 2024, last week marked the hottest consecutive daily temperatures on record. UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that "billions of people are facing an extreme heat epidemic – wilting under increasingly deadly heatwaves, with temperatures topping 50 degrees Celsius around the world. That is 122 degrees Fahrenheit – halfway to boiling." -
Pick Up1068. Conflict-induced Acute Food Crises
Today, conflicts in multiple parts of the world are leading to hunger and severe food crises. On July 17, the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) said 282 million people in 59 countries are facing severe food crises and called for urgent policy intervention to address life-threatening issues. -
Pick Up1067. New Record Daily Global Average Temperature Reached in July 2024
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the global average daily temperature reached an all-time high of 17.09°C on July 21, 2024. -
Pick Up1066. A Global Foresight on Planetary Health and Human Wellbeing
To prepare for a future of uncertainty and rapid change, we must address strategically and institutionally with an outlook and perspective on the risks facing the world in the future. UNEP has published ‘Navigating New Horizons: A global foresight report on planetary health and human wellbeing’. -
Pick Up1065. Green Asia Report Series No. 3: BNI Technology
The third issue of the Green Asia Report Series, "BNI Technology," has been published. This series aims to introduce scalable technologies that can be shared in the Asia-Monsoon region and contribute to the transformation of food systems in the region, by serving as a reference for various stakeholders, including government officials, researchers, extension officers, producers, and the private sector. The third issue introduces biological nitrification inhibition (BNI), a technology for which JIRCAS has been leading. BNI technology is expected to reduce fertilizer use and minimize environmental impact.