<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="entry" style="line-height: 1.22em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="release_date" style="font-size: 14px; font-family: "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; orphans: 2; widows: 2; box-sizing: border-box; text-transform: uppercase; font-weight: 600; margin-top: 23px; margin-bottom: -18px;"><span style="color: rgb(43, 43, 43); font-family: inherit; font-weight: 300; letter-spacing: -0.34px;" class=""><font size="4" class="">GLOBAL GRAZING LANDS INCREASINGLY VULNERABLE TO A CHANGING CLIMATE</font></span></div><div class="release_date" style="font-size: 14px; font-family: "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; orphans: 2; widows: 2; box-sizing: border-box; text-transform: uppercase; font-weight: 600; margin-top: 23px; margin-bottom: -18px;"><span style="color: rgb(43, 43, 43); font-family: inherit; font-weight: 300; letter-spacing: -0.34px;" class=""><font size="4" class=""><br class=""></font></span></div><p class="summary" style="font-size: 17px; font-family: "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; orphans: 2; widows: 2; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 5px 0px 10px; font-style: italic; color: rgb(123, 123, 123);">Maps of worldwide precipitation trends show the impact on pasture -- and people</p><p class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; margin: 5px 0px 15px;"><span style="color: rgb(43, 43, 43); orphans: 2; text-transform: uppercase; widows: 2;" class="">UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA </span><span style="orphans: 2; text-transform: uppercase; widows: 2; font-weight: 600;" class="">PUBLIC RELEASE: </span><time datetime="1519016400" style="orphans: 2; text-transform: uppercase; widows: 2; font-weight: 600; box-sizing: border-box;" class="">19-FEB-2018</time>Some 800 million people around the world depend on livestock that graze on natural vegetation for their livelihoods and food security. In a good season, grasses and other plants flourish, supporting robust herds. In a bad season, the system suffers - as do the people who rely on it. </p><p class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; margin: 5px 0px 15px;">The difference between a good and bad year? One significant and increasingly volatile factor is precipitation.</p><p class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; margin: 5px 0px 15px;">A new study in <em class="" style="line-height: 1.22em;">Nature Climate Change <<</em><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0081-5" class="" style="line-height: 1.22em;"><font class="" style="line-height: 1.22em;">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0081-5</font></a><em class="" style="line-height: 1.22em;">>> </em>reveals that over the past century year-to-year precipitation variability has increased significantly on 49 percent of the world's grazing lands, affecting vegetation and constraining its ability to support livestock. The study's authors, led by a team from the UMN Institute on the Environment, used climate data from 1901 to 2014 to create global maps of precipitation variability trends. While some grazing lands showed decreases in rainfall variability, the overall trend is an increase in fluctuation, both within and between years.</p><p class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; margin: 5px 0px 15px;">"Visualizing precipitation variability trends allows us to identify grazing lands that have undergone large changes - and to learn from those places where people have managed to adapt well despite increased variability," says lead author Lindsey Sloat, a postdoctoral research associate with IonE's Global Landscapes Initiative.</p><p class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; margin: 5px 0px 15px;">This insight is important, because grazing lands are already typically marginal: unsuitable for crops, either too dry or with poor soils. "Even small changes in rainfall put them at more risk," says Paul West, co-director of GLI. Furthermore, some grazing lands are even more inhospitable than others. Changes in precipitation variability especially affect these more vulnerable lands, which - adding to global risk - also tend to be home to the smallholder farmers and pastoralists who most depend on livestock for food. The researchers found:</p><ul class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px;">- Global grazing lands already experience 25 percent more year-to-year variability in precipitation than the average global surface land area<p class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; margin: 5px 0px 15px;">- Regions with high year-to-year precipitation variability support lower livestock densities than less variable regions</p><p class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; margin: 5px 0px 15px;">- Overall precipitation variability has increased the most in areas where grazing is predicted to be important for local food access</p></ul><p class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; margin: 5px 0px 15px;">"This study is showing us that grazing is potentially highly vulnerable to climate change, right across the world, from Australia to Central Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas," says co-author Mario Herrero of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.</p><p align="center" class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; margin: 5px 0px 15px;">###</p></div><div class="" style="line-height: 1.22em;"><div dir="auto" class="" style="line-height: 1.22em;"><div dir="auto" class="" style="line-height: 1.22em;"><div style="line-height: 1.22em;" class="">#3. Swallow hard — and raise the price of carbon. If we are to meet climate pledges made under the Paris climate agreement, the cost of emitting carbon dioxide must rise to $50–$100 per ton by 2030, dramatically higher than the current EU price of less than $6. </div></div></div></div><div class="">
<div dir="auto" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">#3. Swallow hard — and raise the price of carbon. If we are to meet climate pledges made under the Paris climate agreement, the cost of emitting carbon dioxide must rise to $50–$100 per ton by 2030, dramatically higher than the current EU price of less than $6. <br class=""><br class="">Harvard Business Review<br class=""><a href="https://hbr.org/2018/01/climate-change-is-an-overwhelming-problem-here-are-4-things-executives-can-do-today" class="">https://hbr.org/2018/01/climate-change-is-an-overwhelming-problem-here-are-4-things-executives-can-do-today</a></div></div></div>
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