Peace Boat US interns participated in a panel discussion titled “Food Security, Nutrition and Land Degradation: Climate-Resilient Solutions,” presented by the UU-UNO Climate Change Initiative on August 6, 2013. The panel of experts included Professor Marc Levy, Deputy Director of the Center for International Earth Science at Columbia University and George Bouma Co-Director of UNDP-UNED Poverty-Environment initiative. This forum discussed the global and complex problems of Food Security in both developed and developing countries and how climate change affects many aspects of global society. After the presentations the group engaged in a discussion about macro and micro solutions to the different challenges under Food Security.
As pointed out by Professor Marc Levy, climate change brings higher temperatures, increased frequency of natural disasters and increasing levels of carbon dioxide concentration which all jeopardize Food Security around the globe. Co-director George Bouma gave a more structural analysis of how poverty and climate change are related. He pointed out a few factors that directly affect food security which are: supply scarcity, the influence of demand and weak institutions. PEI (Poverty Environmental Initiative) plans to build resilience with a pro-poor environmental sustainability approach that includes important factors of economic assessment for the countries and encouraging stronger institutions with a higher degree of integration.
After the two presentations the group engaged into a discussion about the possible macro and micro solutions to the problems presented. There was a talk about a new model of environmental education for younger children and resorting to Indigenous groups’ knowledge to come up with better production practices. Finally there was a discussion about how can we personally make changes that will result in micro solutions for the problem of climate change. As Professor Levy said the only way for people to make changes in their life that will benefit the environment is for them to “choose to live a more purposeful life”.
This post was created and published by Maria (Intern from Peace Boat US)