Observed Arctic winter land temperatures and IPCC model recreations for the 20th century. Note that although these model runs are able to capture the range of Arctic warm and cold periods, the timing of the peaks varies, suggesting that the early 20th century warming was due to random causes, while the increases at the end of the century shown by all the models supports CO2 as an external forcing of the Arctic climate system.

The averages of the scenarios in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) are presented in this figure, for the year 2090, with the surface temperatures over land, the size of the polar ice cap, and the outer limits of permafrost. This map features shipping routes in addition - as the sea ice is decreasing, the potential for developing shipping in the Arctic increases.

Women are responsible for most household work (and in many parts of the world the majority of agricultural production), but women’s rights to own land or control resources are constrained, often by traditional customs and religious laws.

Radiative forcing caused by changes in atmospheric composition, alteration in land surface reflectance (albedo), and variation in the output of the sun for the year 2000 relative to conditions in 1750.

For all developing countries over the period 1961–99, expansion of harvested land contributed only 29% to growth in crop production versus the contribution of increases in yields, which amounted to 71%; in sub-Saharan Africa, however, yield increases accounted for only 34% of growth in production.

Roughly 17% of all the urban land in the United States is located in the 100-year flood zone. Likewise, in Japan about 50% of the population lives on floodplains, which cover only 10% of the land area. In Bangladesh, the percentage of floodprone areas is much higher and inundation of more than half of the country is not uncommon.

Overall, agriculture (cropping and livestock) contributes 13.5 % of global greenhouse gas emissions mostly through emissions of methane and nitrous oxide (about 47% and 58% of total anthropogenic emissions of CH4 and N2O, respectively). The largest producer is power generation at 25.9% followed by industry with 19.4%.

Salinization affects about 10% of the world’s irrigated land, while the loss of biodiversity and its associated agroecological functions (estimated to provide economic benefits of US$ 1,542 billion per year) adversely affect productivity especially in environmentally sensitive lands in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

While many regions are actively experimenting with GMOs at a small scale, the highly concentrated cultivation of GM crops in a few countries (nearly three-fourths in only the US and Argentina, with 90% in the four countries including Brazil and Canada) is also interpreted as an indication of a modest uptake rate. GM crop cultivation may have increased by double digit rates for the past 10 years, but over 93% of cultivated land still supports conv...

Changes in land use have negatively affected the net ability of ecosystems to sequester carbon from the atmosphere. For instance, the carbon rich grasslands and forests in temperate zones have been replaced by crops with much lower capacity to sequester carbon.

This map represents the study area for the poverty mapping project for West Africa for generation of reliable statistical and cartographic products to communicate the relationship between rural poverty and land use potential in West Africa, in order to provide information to ensure optimal use of research investment.

The trade in wild species can contribute significantly to rural incomes, and the effect upon local economies can be substantial. The high value of wildlife products and derivatives can also provide positive economic incentives to provide an alternative to other land use options for the local people - to protect wild species and their habitats, and to maintain the resource for sustainable and profitable use in the medium and long term. Consequent...

The amount of land area available per capita provides a rough measure on the current carrying capacity for food security and for the development of additional agricultural products for export – such as biofuels. The calculation presented in this figure show that most of Asia is very limited in this respect, especially since populations are expected to increase. Latin America and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa show more potential for the development ...

Freshwater – a natural resource which has been adopted as a human right by the UN in 2002: 'the human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient; affordable; physically accessible; safe and acceptable water for personal and domestic uses'. People depend on this resource for drinking and cooking, for irrigation of farms, for hygiene and sanitation and for power generation. The map presenting this resource only focuses on one part of the geogra...

Changes in the polar regions can cause more warming in the entire planet earth system through feedback effects. One such effect is the reduction of ice and snow due to warmer temperatures. When the white and gray snow and ice disappears, less sun rays are reflected out and instead the heat is absorbed by land and sea - which causes further increase in the warming.

Biofuels have grown quickly in demand and production (Figure 14), fuelled by high oil prices and the initial perception of their role in reducing CO2 emissions (FAO, 2008). Biofuels, including biodiesel from palm oil and ethanol from sugarcane, corn and soybean, accounted for about 1% of the total road transport in 2005, and may reach 25% by 2050, with the EU having set targets as high as 10% by 2020 (World Bank, 2007; FAO, 2008). For many...

The world regions are sharply divided in terms of their capacity to use science in promoting agricultural productivity in order to achieve food security and reduce poverty and hunger. For every US$100 of agricultural output, developed countries spend US$2.16 on public agricultural research and development (R&D), whereas developing countries spend only US$0.55 (IFPRI, 2008). Total agricultural R&D spending in developing countries increased ...

Figure 24: Possible individual ranges of yield and cropland area losses by 2050 with climate change (A2 scenario), non-food crops incl. biofuels (six OECD scenarios), land degradation (on yield and area, respectively, see text), water scarcity (including gradual melt of Himalayas glaciers, see box and text) and pests (invasive species of weeds, pathogens and invertebrates such as insects, see text). Although these effects may be considerable, ...

Current projections suggest that an additional 120 million ha – an area twice the size of France or one-third that of India – will be needed to support the traditional growth in food production by 2030, mainly in developing countries (FAO, 2003), without considering the compensation required for certain losses. The demand for irrigated land is projected to increase by 56% in Sub- Saharan Africa (from 4.5 to 7 million ha), and rainfed land b...

A central component in preventing loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, such as provisioning of water, from expanding agricultural production is to limit the trade-off between economic growth and biodiversity by stimulating agricultural productivity and more efficient land use. Further enhancement of agricultural productivity (‘closing the yield gap’) is the key factor in reducing the need for land and, consequently, the rate of bio...