Adapted from a story written by Olga Rukovets for the State of the Planet news site. As a Las Vegas native, Amanda Grossi grew up surrounded by more than just casinos. “It’s a very ecologically interesting place and close to some amazing geologic and natural wonders—canyons, wetlands, mountains and forests,” Grossi says. These unique landscapes, […]
Originally posted in Columbia Climate School State of the Planet Blog, November 14, 2023, Francesco Fiondella Africa already experiences some of the gravest impacts of climate change, with recurring and persistent drought, extreme heat and extreme rainfall experienced throughout the continent. Recent flooding throughout West and Central Africa has displaced over 8.5 million people, pushing […]
Written by Amanda Grossi and Francesco Fiondella This story is adapted from one originally published by Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA). New state-of-the-art forecasting systems developed at IRI are enabling regional and national meteorological agencies to generate timely and decision-relevant climate information for their agricultural sectors. East Africa is experiencing some […]
Written by Amanda Grossi and Francesco Fiondella This story is adapted from one originally published by Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA). A new data-management and visualization tool developed at IRI is helping national meteorological services and regional climate centers across Africa harness real-time weather data for decision-making in agriculture. National meteorological […]
This story is adapted from one originally published by Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA). ‘Maprooms’ are freely accessible, online analytical and visualization tools to make climate data more usable. Developed at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, they are now being tailored and scaled to support adaptation in African […]
In 2021, ACToday’s Senegal team formalized a partnership with the Human Food and Nutrition Research Laboratory at Cheikh Anta Diop University – Senegal’s most prestigious higher education institution and home to the country’s largest graduate training programs. The partnership aims to address one of the most under-researched topics in development – the links between climate and nutrition.
After Years of Progress on Food Security, Some Nations See Sharp Reversals This story was originally written by Kevin Krajick and published on the State of the Planet blog. For years, it seemed the world was making progress eliminating hunger. Then, starting in 2014, the trend slid back slowly and reversed in many nations; now, some […]
This piece was originally authored by Tyler Ferdinand, Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio, and Katiuscia Fara and published by the World Resources Institute. New recommendations by the World Resources Institute, International Research Institute for Climate and Society, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, World Food Programme and the Global Center on Adaptation outline path to maximize impact of […]
IRI and Fairtrade International host a virtual event about the future of coffee production in a changing climate
The Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow (ACToday) Columbia World Project has been co-organizing yearly trainings in Dhaka to help farmers and other decision makers understand how to access climate information and how that access can help them develop mitigation strategies for climate impacts on agriculture. In 2019, ACToday and its partners organized a […]
Adapted from a release published by Virginia Tech. Since 1970, bird populations in North America have declined by approximately 2.9 billion birds, a loss of more than one in four birds. Factors in this decline include habitat loss and ecosystem degradation from human actions on the landscape. At the same time, enthusiasm for bird-watching has […]
Nébié studies how environmental changes impact communities around the world, and how communities adapt.
Seasonal climate forecasts can help farmers stave off poverty and hunger. Nsengiyumva helps farmers in Africa interpret those forecasts and helps bring them into the design and development process of new climate services.
A new platform aims to use digital technology to help Vietnamese coffee farmers lower costs, boost yields and increase profits.
Adapted from a news story by Columbia World Projects. Scientists and other experts from the Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow (ACToday) Project, joined former New York Times journalist Andrew Revkin for an online web seminar on May 7 to discuss the intersection of food, climate and coronavirus. The event – “Feeding Humanity as […]
According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the COVID19 pandemic is impacting the world’s food systems and disrupting regional agricultural trade and value chains. The FAO has warned that food shortages are a real risk in the coming months. The rapid global spread of the virus poses a worrisome add-on threat to millions of […]
John Furlow, Deputy Director of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, gives a virtual tour of IRI’s desert locust maproom, originally developed in collaboration with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Video transcript: If you paid any attention to the news over the past few years, you may feel like we’re living through […]
Below is a piece originally published on The Conversation on January 21st, 2020, and was authored by IRI researcher Elisabeth Ilboudo-Nébié. In the Sahel of West Africa – which covers Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad – land degradation has led to migration towards less densely populated and more fertile areas. The land […]
Until recently, predicting rainfall and temperature at the subseasonal timescale (i.e. between two weeks and three months) was considered impossible. That’s beginning to change, thanks to the efforts of IRI’s Andrew Robertson, the head of IRI’s climate group and co-chair of the steering group of the Subseasonal to Seasonal (S2S) Prediction Project. In the Q&A […]
A range of IRI’s areas of expertise will be represented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Below is the schedule of IRI’s posters and presentations in sequential order. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8 World Climate Research Programme 40th Anniversary Symposium Lisa Goddard WCRP is celebrating its 40th year of international climate science. We […]
Often considered one of the most revolutionary technologies for climate research, remote sensing has the capacity to vastly improve the predictive strength of a wide variety of forecasting methodologies. However, this is still a rapidly-growing field and continuing to evaluate and cross-reference remote sensing data against other data-gathering methods is necessary to improve accuracy, a […]
With its population of nearly 160 million people, Bangladesh is the eighth most populous country in the world. Its geography – tropical, low-lying, with a sizable coastline – make the country one of the most vulnerable to climate change. Rising sea levels, increased cyclone intensity and frequency, and higher temperatures all pose threats to an […]
This year marks the 10th anniversary of collaboration between the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). This groundbreaking partnership–between institutes representing the climate and agriculture research communities–has led to important advances that neither community could have achieved on its own. […]
IRI’s Juan Nicolás Hernandez-Aguilera discusses his research on sustainable coffee production. Originally from Colombia, his interest in the stark contrast between Colombia’s natural resource wealth and high levels of inequality, rural violence and deforestation has manifested in feeling a “responsibility to bring research toward action.”
Columbia World Projects‘ first project, Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow (ACToday), aims to combat hunger and improve food security by increasing climate knowledge in six countries that are particularly dependent on agriculture and vulnerable to the effects of climate change and fluctuations —Ethiopia, Senegal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Colombia, and Guatemala. The project is led […]
A new study finds that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation has been responsible for widespread, simultaneous crop failures in recent history, running counter to a central pillar of the global agriculture system, which assumes that crop failures in geographically distant breadbasket regions are unrelated.
Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow (ACToday) is a Columbia World Project led by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society. The project aims to combat hunger and improve food security by increasing climate knowledge in six countries that are particularly dependent on agriculture and vulnerable to the effects of climate change and […]
Anthropologists are working with Fulani community leaders to promote knowledge-sharing between herders and climate scientists.
Below is a piece originally published on The Conversation on February 24th, 2019, and was authored by IRI researcher Alessandra Giannini. Over the last decade many countries in the Sahel region – the semi-arid southern edge of the Sahara that stretches from Senegal to Ethiopia – have been embroiled in conflict. Populations in these countries […]
First study to quantify economic trade-offs of shifting from conventional to shade-grown coffee production. Model suggests farmers can optimize coffee profits by converting one to two-thirds of their acreage to shade-grown.
Written by Christopher Shea, Columbia World Projects. It was originally published January 2, 2019 on Columbia World Project’s website. “I will never forget those voices and those faces sitting in front of me,” Sarah Johnson, a student at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), said over coffee at a campus café recently, as she described a meeting she had with a group of elderly […]
The Samalá River watershed on Guatemala’s Pacific coast is a highly productive region for staple and cash crops. It’s also known for having one of the highest incidences of natural disasters in the country. Among the diverse agricultural production in the region, coffee stands as one of the most important export crops. Over the last […]
In this video, IRI’s director, Lisa Goddard, discusses two innovations IRI has helped develop to reduce the potential impacts of droughts and extreme weather on vulnerable communities around the world: climate-based index insurance for smallholder farmers in Africa and forecast-based financing for the World Food Programme. Lisa Goddard– Climate Variability, Index Insurance & Forecast-based Financing […]
Sourcing seeds. Planting at the right time. Using fertilizer. Harvesting crops. Storing food. Shipping food. Setting prices. There are a multitude of decisions made in the systems that bring food to people around the world, and many of these decisions can be better informed by climate information. With the goal of improving the security and […]
As our climate continues to change, it becomes increasingly important to consider the effects this will have around the world, especially in developing countries where many small farmers already struggle. For more than 10 years, researchers at IRI have been developing index insurance, which would provide a safety net for farmers who experience devastating climate […]
A range of IRI’s areas of expertise will be represented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Below is the schedule of IRI’s posters and presentations in sequential order. MONDAY Climate Services Research and Development: Adapting to Climate Today Lisa M Goddard is the primary convener for both a presentation and poster […]
The Indian state of Bihar lies in the eastern area of the country, bordering Nepal. The region was once a powerhouse of culture and education, and Buddhism has its roots in the area. The Ganges River runs straight across this mostly flat, fertile state, where nearly three-quarters of its residents work in agriculture. But despite […]
Despite an overabundance of food in some parts of the world, about 815 million people suffered from chronic undernourishment in 2016. Poor nutrition leads to nearly half of deaths in children under the age of five. Many of those who are hungry are farmers and their families. Our food systems clearly aren’t working as well […]
Workshop for developing expertise in data and digital solutions to support smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. By Ravina Pattni and Kelly Ward This post originally appeared on the blog of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Climate change is threatening farmers’ livelihoods in Ethiopia. Climate information services are a critical […]
A series of three recent training workshops has improved the forecasting capabilities of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), while also helping to deepen the relationship between BMD and Bangladesh’s Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE). The activities pave the way for new climate information products developed especially for DAE’s needs, and ultimately to help the farmers […]
The project transforms Rwanda’s rural communities and economy through climate information and historic data reconstruction. The Rwanda Climate Services for Agriculture project has won the first Climate Smart Agriculture Project of the Year Award. The Aid & International Development Forum announced the news at its Africa Climate Smart Agriculture Summit in Nairobi earlier this week. The Rwanda […]
This is an an abbreviated version of a piece originally posted on the website of a partner organization, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Read the full piece here. With a coastline spanning 3,260 kilometers, Vietnam is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as sea level rise, […]
A weather index insurance tool is graduating from research project to commercial product. Using multimedia and infographics, a new story puts the technical process in the context of its real-world impact. Find out how the International Research Institute for Climate and Society’s Financial Instruments Sector team pulled it off, and how the project could be […]
IRI’s Mélody Braun and John Furlow presented this month at the 4th annual Gobeshona Conference for Research on Climate Change in Bangladesh, held in Dhaka. The conference focused on research-based solutions to local vulnerabilities in Bangladesh and brought together researchers, policymakers, government and non-government representatives, donor agencies and international organizations. Furlow gave a keynote address […]
Lisa Goddard directs Columbia’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), which helps developing countries anticipate and manage the impacts of climate change. Columbia Magazine asked her to explain how climate scientists can predict weather patterns months in advance, and how their work is improving people’s lives. Columbia Magazine: IRI is at the forefront […]
A range of IRI’s areas of expertise will be represented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). One scientist will present on a tool for supporting decision making in agriculture. Another presentation focuses on improving our fundamental ability to predict tropical cyclones. Security under changing conditions is a major theme in […]
By Dan Osgood, Lead Scientist, IRI Financial Instruments Sector Team Small farms are vulnerable to climate risk, but most smallholder farmers around the world don’t have access to insurance and other financial tools to manage fluctuations in climate. Over the past decade we’ve put a great deal of effort into a new kind of insurance–index insurance–that […]
The below is an excerpt from a blog written by IRI staff members James Hansen, Alison Rose and Dannie Dinh and originally appearing on the CCAFS website. On World Meteorological Day, we highlight how CCAFS and partners are supporting national meteorological services in African countries to provide actionable local climate information to farmers. The important contributions […]
In late February, seven staff members and scientists from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society participated in the fifth International Conference on Climate Services. The conference, held in Cape Town, South Africa, focused on capacity development, including elements of formal and non-formal education, infrastructure and institutional capacity, as well as other components of […]
By Dannie Dinh, James Hansen, Floribert Vuguziga, Madeleine Thomson, Yohana Tekeste, and Aisha Owusu This post originally appeared on the web site of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate, Agriculture and Food Security. Climate data gaps are an obstacle to providing useful services for smallholder farmers Climate information—and its use for farming decision making, index-based […]
A range of IRI’s areas of expertise will be represented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Many of the presentations center on fundamental climate science, including analyses of the influence of climate variability and change on rainfall in the US, Iran, South America and the Sahel, as well as the […]
Experts panel on climate-smart agriculture innovations brought agriculture to the forefront of the discussion on climate actions during Climate Week NYC 2016. This story originally appeared on the CCAFS website. The Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA) in partnership with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), the International Research Institute for Climate […]
On 21 September, the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA), the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society are hosting a side event during the Climate Week NYC to share information for sound implementation and scaling up […]
by Bristol Powell & Helen Greatrex, Financial Instruments Sector Team Satellite products could give index insurance projects the scaling power they seek, but challenges remain. A workshop held earlier this year addressed these challenges head on. Index insurance is innovative, but can it reach a critical mass? Until recently, many have doubted that index insurance could scale […]
The Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum, also known as CariCOF, brings together climate scientists and meteorologists with decision-makers who may be able to use climate information. During the meeting, now held twice a year — once at the beginning of the dry season and once at the beginning of the wet season — the scientists present […]
By Megan Helseth The Bicol River Basin in the eastern Philippines is home to more than 5 million people, most of whom rely on agriculture and fishing for their livelihoods. The area is vulnerable to many climate and weather events, including typhoons, floods and dry spells. Each of these can have major impacts on local […]
In El Niño retrospective, lessons from Senegal In a three-part series for the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, graduate student Catherine Pomposi relates her experience in Senegal during the 2015 El Niño. She explains the 2015 El Niño forecast and its climate impacts in Senegal, as well as current efforts to better understand climate in […]
Yesterday, Linda Fried, the dean of the Mailman School of Public Health, wrote about the crucial connection between climate and public health in a piece for the Huffington Post. Understanding and anticipating the ways in which climate change and variability can adversely affect human health, she wrote, requires a global commitment to share science and best practices […]
The IRI has developed a forecast maproom that characterizes the expected fire activity in the Amazon based on climate conditions for the upcoming dry season. Kátia Fernandes, along with Walter Baethgen and Lisa Goddard, have been researching how the Amazon fires are influenced by large-scale ocean phenomena and how sea surface temperature (SST) forecasts can […]
This post originally appeared on the World Policy Institute website. Ten million people in Ethiopia are considered food insecure due to the onset of drought in 2015. From Lesotho to the Sahel, African countries are grappling with the medium- and long-term impacts that climate change will have on their people, economies, and politics. However, even […]
In November 2015, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society at Columbia University, in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, convened the El Niño 2015 Conference. The report from this conference is now available. In addition to recordings and summaries of the […]
In Tambacounda, Senegal, small-scale farmers rely on sufficient and steady rainfall at key times of the growing season. As climate change leads to increased irregularity and intensity of rainfall events, the adaptation strategies employed by farmers to cope with shocks do not always suffice. The fear of poor productivity in a year often prevents them from […]
The Rwanda Climate Services for Agriculture project, officially launched on #WorldMetDay 2016, will benefit nearly one million farmers over the next three years and reshape national food-security planning for the long term. (Kigali, Rwanda) 23 March 2016. To build a more climate-resilient agriculture sector, the Rwandan government and partners are taking action to provide nearly […]
From crowd-sourcing tornado data to teaching Harlem high-school students about climate change and climate justice, IRI scientists will be sharing a number of fascinating projects at the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) next week in New Orleans. Below is a schedule of their presentations and posters. Presenting authors appear in bold. Crowd-Sourcing the Storm: A New […]
Text by Sofía Martínez Video by Elisabeth Gawthrop, Sofía Martínez and Courtney St. John Answers from insurance research La version en español esta disponible aquí. During the first of the two growing seasons of 2015, grain farmers in El Paraíso, Honduras faced one of the worst droughts in history, with losses ranging from 60 to 100% […]
Texto por Sofía Martínez Video por Elisabeth Gawthrop, Sofía Martínez and Courtney St. John Respuestas de la investigación English version available here. Durante las dos temporadas agrícolas del 2015, los productores de granos básicos de El Paraíso, Honduras se enfrentaron a una de las peores sequías en la historia, con pérdidas desde un 60 hasta […]
The IRI has seven scientists and staff presenting on a wide range of topics at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Meeting this year. Andrew Robertson and Alexis Berg will present advancements in our fundamental understanding of earth’s systems. Eunjin Han, Pietro Ceccato and Pradipta Parhi will discuss methods for using our climate knowledge for applications in agriculture, health and […]
Climate resilience: it’s the ability for communities to recover from the impacts of climate events. It’s the difference between weather being manageable…or a catastrophe. But for many parts of the world, where livelihoods depend so much on the climate, critical weather and climate information is unavailable or unusable. The International Research Institute for Climate and […]
A strong El Niño event is in place in the tropical Pacific. IRI’s seasonal forecast for the October-December 2015 period, based on the most recent sea surface temperature projections, predicts a strong likelihood of below-average precipitation for regions in the western equatorial Pacific, including much of the Philippines. The strong likelihood of reduced rainfall during […]
Indonesia on track for worst fire season since 1997 This post contains excerpts from a story published by IRI on Medium.com. View the full story, including data and additional graphics, here. Written by staff from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Media can contact Francesco Fiondella. Much of western Indonesia is […]
Staff members from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) are participating in a number of high-level events during Climate Week NYC this year. See the schedule below, and follow the links for more information. Launch of the Global Nutrition Report Tuesday, September 22 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm, Hearst Building, New York Climate change is complicating global efforts […]
This story was written by David Craig and originally appeared in the Spring 2015 issue of Columbia Magazine. Photography and additional reporting by Francesco Fiondella. As climate change creates agricultural instability around the world, Columbia scientists are testing a seasonal forecasting system in Uruguay to give farmers a fighting chance. Daniel Lalinde doesn’t need a […]
By Alex Sweeney Peering into the satellite control rooms at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) last month was extremely exciting. As participants of the NASA DEVELOP National Program, we use satellite data every day in our research. Helen Cen and I had just finished our end-of-term presentations with other DEVELOP participants and were led […]
This post contains excerpts from the full version on our Medium account. Most extreme climate and weather events involve an unwanted surplus — too much rain, too much wind or too much snow and ice. Drought is a little different: it’s the absence of something. It takes time for a drought to build, making it fundamentally different to monitor […]
A walk through the International Research Institute for Climate and Society is often punctuated by the sounds of French, Spanish and other languages drifting through the halls. Our international staff contributes to this, but usually it’s a sign that we are hosting visitors for training and collaborations. Despite the increasing online connectedness of our world, […]
The Elqui River valley lies in Chile’s northern, mountainous Coquimbo region, which is extremely dry. The region receives only about 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rain each year, and most of it during one short rainy season. The rainfall is also highly variable and driven in large part on El Niño and La Niña fluctuations. In some years, […]
By Katherine Peinhardt The International Research Institute for Climate and Society is hosting a side event on improving data availability, access and use at the Third African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET) conference, a high-level meeting of ministers and heads of meteorological services in Africa, which takes place in Cape Verde, from February 10-14, 2015. […]
Findings spur Nigerian government to look into solutions to cover 15 million farmers by 2017 LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (26 January 2015) — Nigerian government officials will convene in London this week to gather advice for scaling-up agricultural insurance policies for smallholder farmers, to bolster the up and coming agricultural powerhouse’s resilience to climate and market shocks. The meeting […]
Over the last year, the financial instruments sector team at IRI has been working in the Dominican Republic to design an index insurance product for the country’s dairy producers. This work has been part of the Climate Resiliency and Index Insurance Program (CRII), funded by the USAID office in the Dominican Republic. In a new video, we show how researchers […]
Headed to AGU? Find the full schedule of IRI staff presenting here. The Sahel region, just south of the Sahara Desert, stretches across Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. The persistent drought and resulting famines that pummeled the region in the 1970s and 80s were for decades blamed on local societies – on […]
The Climate Services Partnership is pleased to announce the fourth International Conference on Climate Services (ICCS 4), which will be held in Montevideo, Uruguay. The event starts this Wednesday, December 10 at 10:30 am UTC and runs through Friday, December 12, 2:30 pm UTC. ICCS 4 is being hosted by the Uruguayan Ministry of Agriculture, […]
The IRI has a record thirteen scientists and staff presenting at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Meeting this year. Below is the schedule of events for those presenting, organized by theme and with links to additional information about their research. CLIMATE & HEALTH Climate and Population Health Vulnerabilities to Vector-Borne Diseases: Increasing Resilience Under Climate […]
The Financial Instruments Sector team at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society works with farmers, development organizations and agencies, insurance companies and other research institutes to design insurance products that are tailored to local and regional climate risks and economic systems. With the help of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, we’ve produced this video […]
In a few months, NASA will launch a new satellite mission called Soil Moisture Active Passive, SMAP, which will provide high-resolution global coverage of soil moisture conditions. The International Research Institute for Climate and Society is collaborating with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the CGIAR’s Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security to develop a crop-forecasting […]
The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) is co-hosting several events during Climate Week NYC 2014. See the schedule of IRI events below, and follow the links for more information. If you are a member of the media and would like to attend any of the events, please write to media @ iri.columbia.edu. Sustaining Health Linking Environment, […]
On August 14, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society signed an agreement with Uruguay’s Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria to open an IRI office in Uruguay and to expand ongoing scientific collaboration between Uruguay and Columbia University. The new five-year agreement, which starts in September, will support two-way exchanges between IRI and INIA staff. Some funds to […]
By Sofía Martínez, Radost Stanimirova and Daniel Osgood Since January, the northwestern Dominican Republic has experienced one of the worst droughts in 15 years. Early work by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and its partners on a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development has shown the potential for using […]
By Catherine Pomposi On a hot weekend in mid-June, I traveled with members of the Senegalese National Meteorological Agency, known by the acronym ANACIM, to the village of Toucar in the Fatick region of Senegal. The meteorological team works in the region producing and delivering climate information for the farmers who live there. Fatick, like […]
Farmers in Central America and the Caribbean are highly vulnerable to the impacts of a changing and variable climate. Current and projected changes in temperature, precipitation and the frequency of droughts, hurricanes and other extreme events threaten the region’s ability to meet goals for food security and economic growth. Farmers here typically lack access to timely, […]
By Bristol Mann and Radost Stanimirova A group of climate scientists, economists and remote sensing experts from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center are collaborating to help solve a longstanding issue in the development of agriculture insurance programs in Africa: how to generate enough quality environmental data […]
By Tufa Dinku A recent workshop built capacity to use new climate information tools in West Africa. Agricultural practitioners are seeking to build resilience to climate variability and change while maximizing the benefits from favorable climate conditions. Decision-relevant climate information at different levels is critical to this ability, and involving users in the creation of […]
This May, climatologists, meteorologists, social scientists, and decision-makers from sectors including water resources, agriculture, and health gathered in Kingston, Jamaica for the Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum (CariCOF). CariCOF is one of many such forums that are held around the world to produce and disseminate consensus-based regional seasonal climate forecasts. Many of the CariCOF attendees also participated […]
By Jim Hansen A new publication details the history of research on El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and how the climate phenomenon impacts society The paper gives a historical overview of the key discoveries/breakthroughs that led to our current understanding of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and its use for seasonal climate forecasting. The study of ENSO is important to […]
As an ‘El Niño’ climate event heats up in the Pacific, the spotlight is on how we can prepare for the weather and climate shifts that may be in store. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a kind of pendulum in the global climate system, swinging back and forth on a 2-7 year cycle, bringing drought to some areas […]
By Alexa Jay and Jim Hansen El Niño’s impacts are far-reaching, influencing rainfall and temperature patterns across the globe. In agriculture, these impacts are felt primarily through the cycle’s effect on precipitation, particularly in the developing world where 80% of farmland is rainfed. But not all impacts are bad — while some areas may suffer […]
By Ben Orlove and Ángel Muñoz A new study examines the degree to which decision makers working in key sectors–agriculture, water and health–have been able to make successful use of forecasts of El Niño and La Niña. We find that these forecasts have indeed often been put into use, but only when two conditions have been […]
By Elisabeth Gawthrop and Mea Halperin The Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum (CariCOF) took place yesterday in Kingston, Jamaica. It is one of a number of Climate Outlook Forums (COFs) around the world during which scientists present a forecast to decision makers who work in climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water management, disaster planning and health. The forecast […]
Next week, the Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum (known as CariCOF) will kick off in Kingston, Jamaica. At this event, both providers and users of climate information from across the Caribbean will discuss the upcoming season’s forecast and the ways the forecast might be used to make decisions in water resources, tourism and disaster risk management. To learn […]
IRI and the University of Arizona address climate vulnerability in most at-risk areas of the world in new project The Caribbean, Asia’s Indo-Gangetic Plain and West Africa are three regions known to be extremely vulnerable to climate variability and change, particularly to droughts, extreme weather events and stresses on food production, water resources and coastal areas. A […]
The International Research Institute for Climate and Society and the Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development at Columbia University are collaborating with the Centre for Climate Risk and Opportunity Management in Southeast Asia Pacific at Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB – Bogor Agriculture University) in Indonesia to help farmers cope with droughts, fires and other climate impacts. The project, called “CU-IPB […]
What follows is the first half of a post written by IRI climate scientist Arthur Greene for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security web site. Greene describes his work to understand how year-to-year and decadal climate fluctuations can act to either enhance or mitigate the effects of climate change. Follow the […]
Follow-up coverage from the recently held Third International Conference on Climate Services (ICCS3) continues, this time from our partners at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The World Bank’s Ana E. Bucher gives an informative overview of the climate challenges faced by farmers in Mafoota, a small farming community in […]
In the last decade, warmer sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic have corresponded with below-average precipitation in Peru and western Brazil. The relationship is due to the effect of sea surface temperatures on the location of the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) – a band of clouds and rain stretching around the globe where trade winds […]
Andrew Kruczkiewicz sits in front of his laptop, examining a map of South Sudan. The map shows precipitation across the country in varying shades of green. Kruczkiewicz is comparing maps of rainfall and other climate variables with epidemiological information over the same area. He and his research partner, Alexandra Sweeney, are both interns for NASA’s DEVELOP […]
Four IRI scientists and one PhD student are attending the 2013 AGU Fall Meeting. Below are links to Q&As with each of the presenters and the schedule of their posters and presentations. For additional information about the scientists’ work, search the conference program for their names here. Pietro Ceccato Q&A Poster: Development and Implementation of Flood […]
This post is the fourth in a series of Q&As with scientists from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society who will be presenting their work at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco December 9 to 13. IRI’s Arthur Greene develops methods for characterizing climate trends on “near-term” time scales, i.e., […]
This article is a modification from the original press release issued by The University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences A new study suggests the southern portion of the Amazon rainforest is at a much higher risk of dieback due to climate change than projections made in the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel […]
IRI and NASA have been working together for the past five years on developing products derived from remotely sensed images for monitoring climate and environmental factors that affect the transmission of vector-borne diseases. Their collaboration has expanded recently through new activities with SERVIR Africa, NASA’s partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Regional […]
Index insurance can lower the cost of insurance, allowing smallholder farmers to buy insurance that can help them withstand the impacts of bad years and risk making productive investments in good years. A key component of index insurance is historical data – often temperature or rainfall data – to use as a basis for creating an index that determines when insurance payouts […]
IRI has put together a list of Frequently Asked Questions for the US Agency for International Development about index insurance and how it is being used in development and adaptation projects around the world. Download the FAQ or click on the image. If you’re looking for even more resources on index insurance, head over to our Financial […]
Our friends at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network have written a nice post that explains how IRI’s seasonal climate forecasts have been for decision making, focusing on a particular case in Uruguay. In December 2010, reports showed that many areas of Uruguay were headed for drought. IRI’s seasonal precipitation forecast map issued in November […]
By Georgette Jasen When scientists talk about climate change, they usually mean significant changes in the measures of climate over several decades or longer. Climate variability generally refers to seasonal changes over a year or so. Lisa Goddard, an expert on climate change and variability, focuses on where the two intersect. As director of the […]
The Elqui River basin in Chile’s Coquimbo region is one of the driest places on Earth. It receives only about 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rain each year, and most of it during one short rainy season. The rainfall isalso highly variable. In some years, the region will get close to zero rainfall, while in […]
Climate in Africa’s Sahel region varies dramatically from one year to the next and often threatens farmers’ livelihoods. In Kaffrine, Senegal, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, the Senegalese National Meteorological Agency, the country’s agriculture extension service, the Earth Institute’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society and many farmers […]
A new two-year climate change initiative, led by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society aims to help farmers in Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Bangladesh reduce their vulnerability to climate risks. The International Fund for Agricultural Development is the primary project sponsor and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has provided additional resources. The project was […]
A new two-year climate change initiative, led by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society aims to help farmers in Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Bangladesh reduce their vulnerability to climate risks. The International Fund for Agricultural Development is the primary project sponsor and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has provided additional resources. […]
A team of scientists from the Earth Institute, including IRI’s Katia Fernandez, have come to the Amazon delta to find out how communities are adapting. The researchers want to understand how the climate is changing, and how they can help with better forecasting and strategies for adaptation as part of a project titled, “Socio-Cultural Adaptations of […]
By Elisabeth Gawthrop, Climate and Society ’13 During the 20th century, southeastern South America experienced a soybean boom due in part to increased summer rainfall. Soybean prices have been so high that farmers are planting this crop in areas that were traditionally considered marginal. Why rainfall increased remains unclear. Human-induced climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion […]
The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that nearly 900 million people in the world were chronically hungry between 2010 and 2012. The organization is also warning we could face a global food crisis in 2013 because of historically low grain reserves and rising food prices. Add to this the ever-present challenge of trying to increase both production of and […]
Subsistence Two acres of cracked earth. In northern Ethiopia, it can be a trap that keeps farmers tethered to it for generations. Or it can be a springboard to a better life for this and future generations. What impedes it from showing its springier qualities? You could argue the biggest pressure on the land comes […]
by Vanessa Meadu, Francesco Fiondella and Brian Kahn The massive and wide-scale drought that has left American farmers shaking their fists at barren clouds is the fifth-worst on record for the U.S. Eight out of every 10 acres of agricultural land has been affected. As a result, farmers will pull in the lowest corn yield […]
Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. Life expectancy there is 54 years, and it has an infant mortality rate higher than any other country except Afghanistan. It is also a country that is extremely vulnerable to climate variability and change. The livelihoods of four out of five people in Niger depend […]
The latest report from the US Agency for International Development’s Famine and Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) warns that the March-to-May rainy season for the Horn of Africa, also known as the “long rains”, is likely to perform poorly again this year. The agency has called for humanitarian organizations to “immediately implement programs to protect livelihoods […]
In developed countries, we are accustomed to having access to long and detailed records on weather and climate conditions, demographics, disease incidence and many other types of data. Decision makers use this information for a variety of societal benefits: they spot trends, fine-tune public health systems and optimize crop yields, for example. Researchers use it […]
For millennia, people have set fires to clear land for cultivation, pastures or hunting; so-called slash-and-burn agriculture is still common across much of tropical Africa, Asia and South America. It has been a useful strategy, but it is now becoming problematic. A new Earth Institute story and documentary, shot in the Peruvian Amazon, follows the […]
In our latest video interview, research economist Dan Osgood discusses index insurance and how it is helping some poor rural communities reduce hardships caused by drought in East Africa: These products are becoming available to people for the first time at larges scales just this year. Given the difficulties of these [two] years, the farmers […]
In countries where an overwhelming majority of the population relies on rain-fed agriculture, drought can have serious consequences. Mali found this out during a crippling decade-long drought during the 1970s and 1980s. As part of drought response efforts, the Malian government collaborated with a range of humanitarian actors starting in 1982 to provide farmers with […]
Earlier this month, U.S. President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a new era of collaboration on agricultural research in the face of climate change. In fact, efforts have been underway since 2009: the Earth Institute’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) has been working for the past two years […]
By Stephen Zebiak As I wrote in the previous installment, climate risk management is a process that informs decision making through the application of climate knowledge and information. IRI’s approach to climate risk management consists of four components. The first is identifying vulnerabilities and potential opportunities posed by climate variability or change in a given […]
A new multimillion dollar research program by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research aims to alleviate climate-related threats to the food security, livelihoods and environment of people living in the developing world. One of the key intellectual forces behind this initiative has been the International Research Institute for Climate and Society’s Jim Hansen. He’ll […]
By Esther Conrad In May and June each year, speculation about the coming of the monsoon fills newspapers and conversations across India. Urban dwellers eagerly await respite from overbearing heat. Investors scrutinize forecasts, trying to anticipate possible impacts on food prices. But none have more at stake than India’s over 100 million farming households. In […]
By Caitlin Kopcik Rising global food prices and favorable rainfall patterns in recent decades have allowed farmers in South America’s Southern Cone region to grow crops on formerly marginal lands. But if climate patterns shift and the rains start to fail, the region could face devastating losses in its economy, livelihoods and infrastructure. The IRI […]
Millions of people in the tropics depend on coconuts for food, raw materials and livelihood. Coconuts are also a high value commercial crop. But like any crop, coconuts are at risk of drought and other prolonged events. By using climate science and better agricultural forecast models, the IRI has helped increase the resilience of coconut […]
This is the first of an ongoing series of interviews with prominent thinkers in the area of climate risk management. Over the next year, we will be sharing their insights on how climate science and information can help meet the goals of development and adaptation. These individuals are pioneers in fields as diverse as climate […]
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