10.09. Leemans

Keynote Presentations from the 5th ALTER-Net Summer School, Peyresq 5 - 14 September 2010

Speaker: Rik Leemans

Rik.Leemans -at- wur.nl

Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
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Title of the talk: ESSP: developing an integrated Earth system science approach (pdf: 7MB)

Abstract

The ESSP is a partnership for the integrated study of the Earth System, the ways that it is changing, and the implications for global and regional sustainability. Earth System Science is the study of the Earth System, with an emphasis on observing, understanding and predicting global environmental changes involving interactions between land, atmosphere, water, ice, biosphere, societies, technologies and economies. Results from ESSP studies are used by international assessments, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment (MA) and the new Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and conventions, such as the International Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). These conventions have set targets for respectively climate protection and biodiversity conservation. Measuring progress towards such targets is one of the aims of the ESSP and some examples will be given. This not only requires the development of indicators that not only specify ongoing trends but also allow to assess future changes, but also the communication of these trends. Examples of the ESSP approach will be presented together with their uncertainties and impacts.

Recommended background literature on this presentation:

• Leemans R, Asrar G, Canadell JG, Ingram J, Larigauderie A, Mooney H, Nobre C, Patwardhan A, Rice M, Schmidt F, Seitzinger S, Virji H, Vörösmarthy C, Young O (2009) Developing a common strategy for integrative global change research and outreach: the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP). Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 1:4-13. doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2009.07.013
• Mace GM, Cramer W, Díaz S, Faith DP, Larigauderie A, Le Prestre P, Palmer M, Perrings C, Scholes RJ, Walpole M, Walther BA, Watson JEM, Mooney HA (2010) Biodiversity targets after 2010. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2:3-8. doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2010.03.003
• Hulme M, Zorita E, Price J, Christy JR (2010) IPCC: cherish it, tweak it or scrap it? Nature 463:730-732. doi:10.1038/463730a

• Smith JB, Schellnhuber H-J, Qader Mirza M, Fankhauser S, Leemans R, Erda L, Ogallo LA, Pittock BA, Richels R, Rosenzweig C, Safriel U, Tol RSJ, Weyant J, Yohe G (2001) Vulnerability to climate change and reasons for concern: A synthesis. In: McCarthy JJ, Canziani OF, Leary NA, Dokken DJ, White KS (Eds.) Climate change 2001. Impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 913-967. http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg2/657.htm