44th TB Macaulay Lecture 8 Hutton Highlights The lecture, which is presented by the Hutton and the Macaulay Development Trust (MDT), highlighted the importance of responsible land-use as one of the most vital factors to securing a stable future for the planet. Drawing on his most recent Planetary Boundaries 3.0 research, which has for the first time defined and quantified the nine major processes needed for a sustainable future for the planet, Rockström spoke of the critical factors that could lead to tipping points. This is where previously self-sustaining ecosytems are pushed beyond a threshold in which there is a substantial and often irreversible shift, even if the initial driver of the change is removed. His observed that to keep global warming at or below 1.5°C, all remaining intact nature must be preserved, which means keeping 50% of terrestrial ecosystems on earth intact. He also noted that the “safe land-use” boundary has no capacity for expansion and that 45-50% of land on earth has been converted for agriculture, infrastructure and urban developments. This means we have reached the end of the road in expanding agriculture into intact nature and food systems require urgent reform. Drawing from modern scientific anthropological principles which identify land-use as the signifier of major global change, Rockström explained: “As we enter the Anthropocene, a new stage of civilisation characterised as ‘the time during which humans have had a substantial impact on our planet’, climate change is happening at a rate we have never seen before. The last time a change of this scale occurred in humanity was the shift from the huntergatherer model to the land-cultivating model of the Holocene – the beginnings of farming. A difference is that the rate of change is up to 100% faster today.” The lecture was further contextualised by speaker Professor Mathew Williams, Scotland’s Chief Scientific Advisor for Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, panelists Professor Sir Ian Boyd, President of the Royal Society of Biology and Professor of Biology at University of St Andrews, and Laura Young, Hydro Nation Scholar and PhD student at the University of Abertay, as well as event hosts Fran van Dijk, Chair of the MDT, and Professor Colin Campbell, Chief Executive of the Hutton. Internationally recognised expert on global sustainability issues, Professor Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), shared his groundbreaking insights at the 44th annual TB Macaulay lecture held at the McEwan Hall in Edinburgh in October, in front of a 500-strong audience made up of leaders in climate action, agriculture, academia and policy.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODU0MDE=