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DIGITAL MAGAZINE

May 2024

DIGITAL MAGAZINE

May 2024

corn maze with Einstein's face and spiral galaxy

Introduction: Bringing the world’s food production in line with global climate goals

About 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from food production. Human society faces tremendous challenges in remaking its food system in an age of climate change — but it has some powerful tools at hand.
corn maze with Einstein's face and spiral galaxy

Introduction: Bringing the world’s food production in line with global climate goals

About 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from food production. Human society faces tremendous challenges in remaking its food system in an age of climate change — but it has some powerful tools at hand.

Interview: Catherine Bertini on eliminating hunger in a changing climate

A long-time leader in efforts to combat the world's food crisis gives her impressions of the UN's goals to both eliminate global hunger and reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
cows in Switzerland against mountains

Does ‘net zero’ mean zero cows?

A significant share of anthropogenic global warming comes from livestock production—in particular, the methane they burp out. But we should not fool ourselves that getting rid of animal agriculture would solve climate change. At best, removing cows could make up for a couple decades of continued inaction in reducing fossil emissions.
climate protests COP28

We cannot afford another lost year for food and climate action

Last December, organizers of the annual UN climate negotiations finally got around to dealing with agriculture as a source of carbon, using the occasion to unveil a non-binding so-called “roadmap” for bringing the world’s food production into line with global climate goals. But has it gone far enough?
early botanical illustration of breadfruit

What if potatoes grew on trees? An interview with the Breadfruit Institute’s Diane Ragone

Once a storied icon of the Pacific, this indigenous foodstuff seemed destined for oblivion, a victim of fast-food chains and cheap canned goods. But this more-or-less forgotten, low-cost, sustainable, environmentally friendly, locally grown fruit may be seeing a revival. The Bulletin talks to the founder of the Breadfruit Institute in Hawai'i to find out the story behind this fruit's rise, fall, and re-birth.
European city with rooftop garden

What do we really know about urban agriculture’s impact on people, places, and the planet?

Urban agriculture is not automatically guaranteed to be more climate-friendly than conventional agriculture. But it does have an effect on the food and water resources of cities—and by including some very specific steps, urban farmers can indeed slash their carbon emissions.

Regenerative agriculture sequesters carbon—but that’s not the only benefit and shouldn’t be the only goal

Agriculture is a climate problem. But it could also be a climate solution, because of its potential to sequester carbon in the soil—sometimes referred to as “regenerative agriculture” as a shorthand way to refer to a suite of practices that researchers believe can help improve the land.

United States nuclear weapons, 2024

The United States has embarked on a wide-ranging nuclear modernization program. We estimate that its maintains a stockpile of approximately 3,708 warheads.

Interview: Catherine Bertini on eliminating hunger in a changing climate

A long-time leader in efforts to combat the world's food crisis gives her impressions of the UN's goals to both eliminate global hunger and reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
cows in Switzerland against mountains

Does ‘net zero’ mean zero cows?

A significant share of anthropogenic global warming comes from livestock production—in particular, the methane they burp out. But we should not fool ourselves that getting rid of animal agriculture would solve climate change. At best, removing cows could make up for a couple decades of continued inaction in reducing fossil emissions.
climate protests COP28

We cannot afford another lost year for food and climate action

Last December, organizers of the annual UN climate negotiations finally got around to dealing with agriculture as a source of carbon, using the occasion to unveil a non-binding so-called “roadmap” for bringing the world’s food production into line with global climate goals. But has it gone far enough?
early botanical illustration of breadfruit

What if potatoes grew on trees? An interview with the Breadfruit Institute’s Diane Ragone

Once a storied icon of the Pacific, this indigenous foodstuff seemed destined for oblivion, a victim of fast-food chains and cheap canned goods. But this more-or-less forgotten, low-cost, sustainable, environmentally friendly, locally grown fruit may be seeing a revival. The Bulletin talks to the founder of the Breadfruit Institute in Hawai'i to find out the story behind this fruit's rise, fall, and re-birth.
European city with rooftop garden

What do we really know about urban agriculture’s impact on people, places, and the planet?

Urban agriculture is not automatically guaranteed to be more climate-friendly than conventional agriculture. But it does have an effect on the food and water resources of cities—and by including some very specific steps, urban farmers can indeed slash their carbon emissions.

Regenerative agriculture sequesters carbon—but that’s not the only benefit and shouldn’t be the only goal

Agriculture is a climate problem. But it could also be a climate solution, because of its potential to sequester carbon in the soil—sometimes referred to as “regenerative agriculture” as a shorthand way to refer to a suite of practices that researchers believe can help improve the land.

United States nuclear weapons, 2024

The United States has embarked on a wide-ranging nuclear modernization program. We estimate that its maintains a stockpile of approximately 3,708 warheads.

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Albert Einstein in Washington, D.C., between 1921 and 1923. Harris & Ewing, photographers. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016885961/

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