Managing Global Climate Change An Executive Interview with David Lobell

Many of the world’s poorest regions could face severe crop losses in the next two decades because of climate change, according to Dr. David Lobell, a Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University in the program on Food Security and Environment. The average world temperature is increasing slightly says Lobell and a one-degree Celsius increase over time greatly impacts climatic growing conditions. Unfortunately, agriculture is also the human enterprise most vulnerable to changes in climate. Understanding where these climate threats will be is central to our efforts in fighting hunger and poverty over the coming decades. Dr. Lobell outlines some of the challenges that lie ahead and steps researchers are taking to combat the issues. This interview was conducted by Doug Jose is a Professor and Extension Farm Management Specialist in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln and host of the Market Journal, a weekly televised program on agriculture. This interview occurred during the 18th Annual World Forum and Symposium in Monterey, California, June, 2008.