International Conservation & Development

“More with less, save the rest.” The three key concepts set forth in this phrase have been at the center of many recent domestic and international conversations about the future of agriculture. The discussion regarding the first concept follows the logic that food production will need to double by 2050 to meet demand. This will be due to an overall increase in the global population coupled with increases in the consumption of animal protein, fruits, and vegetables as the standard of living, especially in developing countries, steadily rises.

The Titanic hit an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland, but it probably didn’t hit one the size of Manhattan. As oceans warm and global ambient temperatures rise, glaciers in Greenland and ice sheets in the Antarctic are calving bigger and more numerous icebergs. One the size of Manhattan floated free from Greenland in 2010, as seen in this video.

New investments in China and the Middle East have demonstrated a developing strategic interest in renewable energies. Yet every country still faces obstacles: be it legislation in the United States or enforcement and rapid development in China. Kelly Sims Gallagher of the Fletcher School at Tufts University sits down with IP to talk about the future of energy policy and its effects on foreign relations. Read the full interview

Last week, yet another high-level report on a topic of global concern was published by yet another group of eminent experts – this one on food security and climate change. The eminent experts – the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change – were assembled by a group of donor countries and the World Bank for the one-year task of producing the report and its recommendations. Read her full analysis

A new audio slideshow explores the work of UNH Professor Drew Conroy during the year he spent in Namibia, Africa. Conroy, a professor of applied animal science at the Thompson School of Applied Science, has traveled the world teaching about and researching techniques that are helping people to sustainably feed themselves. Watch the slideshow

They could hardly have been more different, the nomadic Masai tribesmen from East Africa and the college professor from New Hampshire. Yet, as they sat around a campfire on a remote African savanna, it soon became clear that they all spoke the same timeless language: cattle.

For 2011 Switzer Fellow Jeannette Laramee, it all started with designing a school in Zambia, Africa. That led to building systems that make biogas, which can save up to 10,000 pounds of firewood a year for a family in Africa.

"Some coralline algae produce a chemical that induces coral settlement, in which the larval stage in the water settles on the ocean floor to grow into an adult. This settlement must happen for reefs to recover after disturbance," said lead author Jennifer O'Leary, a research associate with the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.

LITZINGER12:34:22 Okay. Are we causing a problem? For example, here in the United States, we are a consumer society. Sometimes we don't think about where things come from. What's the connection between what we buy and the Sumatran Tiger? KRAMME12:34:34