I dunno. You got your FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which is right now winding up here in Rome for the 13th time (CGRFA 13). Then of course you got your International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which met a few months ago in Bali for the fourth time. Then you got your WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC), whose 19th session is meeting in Geneva about now too. Then you got your Convention on Biological Diversity with its Nagoya Protocol and whatnot. Maybe others too. I just hope somebody out there is in charge of keeping all this stuff straight. Don’t you?
Oh no, not another social network!
We’ve been playing around with Scoop.it. What do you think?
Watch the heat wave roast the US
Dept of 1 picture = 1000 words
Via Michael J. Roberts, who got it from David Lobell.
Ollas Per Persson
Just a great photo from the Swedish National Heritage Board, taken ca 1944, that I found on Flickr’s Economic Botany Pool.
Climate change: thanks for all the dead fish
One of the little-appreciated aspects of climate change is that greater variability brings with it more frequent extremes, and if a system is already stressed it doesn’t take much to tip it over the edge. In many places, aquaculture is such a system. The photo 1 is from November 2010, but a glance at the news shows that massive fishkills are a common feature, and not just in The Philippines.
What seems to happen is a series of “unlucky” breaks. The fish are already densely stocked and overfed, and in the morning oxygen levels in the water can be dangerously low because the plants don’t produce oxygen in the dark. Most days, that’s alright, because the algae and plants in the water start to photosynthesise and put out oxygen. A cloudy morning, however, can reduce photosynthesis, and if the day is also hot oxygen levels fall even further as dissolved oxygen escapes. Worse, in hotter water the metabolism of the fish revs up, so they need more oxygen. Throw in a rainstorm, especially if soils around the fish farms are bare, and you get an influx of turbid water that further blocks photosynthesis, dropping oxygen lower still. Tonnes of fish suffocate. And lakes may take years to recover.
Authorities recommend “premature harvest” but that is clearly a Band-aid. The sustainable solution is to make the system more resilient, by decreasing stocking levels and feeding, and trying to ensure that rainwater inflows do not carry too much sediment into the water. Fish farmers cannot control the weather; can they adapt to extremes that can certainly control their business?