Global Issues Project
Rapidly growing demand, resulting from increasing global population, rising per-capita consumption, and the spread of harmful or inappropriate technologies, is causing an upward trend in the use of resources and the stresses on environmental sinks. At the same time, supplies of resources are being provided at increasing energy cost, and pollution is increasing, most notably the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Climate change makes each factor of concern more worrisome. The Global Issues Project is designed to probe interrelationships among vital factors, and to devise and promote strategies that might help humankind manage its way through anticipated crises.
The Global Issues Project has a range of papers available for download as PDF.
- GIP Brochure (Outside PDF file)
- GIP Brochure (Inside PDF file)
- GIP Prospectus (PDF)
- Roundtable on Biochar
- The discussions at this roundtable focused on the Energy and Environmental issues surrounding and relating to the emerging Global Biofuels industry, and how Biochar could and should fit into that emerging industry in order to ensure sufficient long-term soil productivity to allow for a sustainable transition to a non-fossil hydrocarbon economy, which is part of the much discussed “Green Economy”.
- Report from the Roundtable on Biochar
- Roundtable on Food and Population
- In the Fall of 2009 the head of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization went on a 24 h hunger strike in order to draw public attention to world hunger; he claimed food production must double in the next 30 years to feed the growing world population. This is a huge challenge, considering the adverse impact of climate change, droughts, and soil erosion on food production.
A Food and Population Public Forum was organized by the Global Issues Project of Science for Peace and the Canadian Pugwash Group in order to address these issues. The Forum was held on 20 Nov. 2009 at the Koffler Institute, University of Toronto; it attracted and retained an enthusiastic audience until the end of the question period on a Friday evening. To judge by the full auditorium and the lively discussion following the panel, the event was a resounding success. Video report on the Public Forum are available on Youtube here. - Bulletin Issue (PDF)
- Reflections on the Public Forum on Food and Population (PDF)
- Action Framework on Food & Population (PDF)
- Ongoing discussion on this blog.
- In the Fall of 2009 the head of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization went on a 24 h hunger strike in order to draw public attention to world hunger; he claimed food production must double in the next 30 years to feed the growing world population. This is a huge challenge, considering the adverse impact of climate change, droughts, and soil erosion on food production.
- Roundtable on Slow Growth Economy
- Slower by Design, Not Disaster: A Roundtable on Managing Without Growth. A Summary of the notes and discussions as well as videos of the talks can be found here: www.nogrowthroundtable.ca
- Slower by Design, Not Disaster: A Roundtable on Managing Without Growth. A Summary of the notes and discussions as well as videos of the talks can be found here: www.nogrowthroundtable.ca
- Roundtable on Forests
- Roundtable on Climate Change & Energy
- Wasan Action Framework (PDF)
- Wasan Action Framework (PDF)
- Roundtable on Freshwater
- Overview of Roundtable (PDF)
- Water and Peace in a Rapidly converging World (PDF)
- Freshwater Declaration (English PDF)
- Freshwater Declaration (French PDF)
- A Dissenting View (PDF)
- Physical Limits to Large-Scale Biomass for Replacing Fossil Fuels (PDF)
Further documentation (conference background papers, etc) can be found on the Canadian Pugwash Group website.