24 Hour Global Marathon For Sustainability Food For Earth 2021

The FAO elearning Academy together with Future Food Institute, organized the second edition of the 24-hour Global Digital Marathon for Sustainability entitled: “Food for Earth”, in 2021. The event was a knowledge sharing collaborative initiative, fully aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030 and FAO’s Strategic Framework. The Marathon has proven to be an extremely powerful initiative to raise awareness among entrepreneurs, startups, scientists, journalists, young leaders, policymakers, general public, farmers and indigenous peoples on the importance of environmental, economic and social sustainability. The publication aims at gathering the multilingual work sessions spread out across the globe, all focusing on the regenerative power of food systems. Overall, the 2021 Marathon had a fantastic global impact, bringing together more than 160 expert voices, in 30 main work sessions, in English, French, Italian and Spanish, reaching more than 150?000 views worldwide, and a global coverage from over 100 online journals, TV channels and networks. In addition, ministers and government representatives from more than 30 countries contributed and endorsed the event. As a result, participating countries have proposed and committed to implement more than 100 climate actions.

Together with Future Food Institute (FFI), FAO’s elearning Academy marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day with a 24-hour multilingual digital global marathon on sustainability. Entitled “Food for Earth,“ the event brought together a diverse group of experts for a discussion on how sustainable food systems can play a transformative role in the way we live, and the impact we have on the planet. The publication aims at gathering all the multilingual work sessions spread out across the globe, all focused on the regenerative power of food systems. The online discussions moved from east to west, with the first sessions held in China, Japan and India, before moving on to the Middle East, Russian Federation, Europe, Africa and the Americas. Participants even had a chance to connect with Antarctica during one of the sessions, when scientists based at Concordia Research Station on the Antarctic Plateau joined in. The event featured participants from a number of backgrounds, providing diverse perspectives on how the transformation of food systems can play an important role in the health of the planet. Indigenous peoples, entrepreneurs, scientists, journalists, young leaders, policymakers and farmers all contributed. The marathon brought together more than 100 expert voices, who were joined by more than 100 000 viewers worldwide throughout the day.

This publication describes the activities and initiatives implemented by the elearning Academy in 2022. 2022 was an exceptionally productive and successful year with over 800 000 learners throughout the world, and 95 new FAO multilingual elearning courses published and offered free of charge as a global public good. The FAO elearning Academy organized a series of successful international technical webinars in 2022, with over 4 000 participants and in collaboration with more than 50 partners worldwide. This year, the FAO elearning Academy contributed to COP 27 with two UN CC Learn Climate Classrooms, and was dynamic in its outreach strategy, with over 600 communication products disseminated through various media and channels, including videos, press releases, articles, newsletters and publications.

This publication describes the work of the elearning Academy in 2020. The year 2020 marked the launch of the FAO multilingual elearning Academy new website, the adoption of a digital badges certification system and the organization of a series of successful international technical webinars with over 5 000 participants in total and in collaboration with more than 30 partners worldwide. In addition to this, 75 new elearning self-paced courses were published, reaching the number of 350 multilingual elearning courses as a result of a collaborative effort involving over 200 partners throughout the world. The courses are fully aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and cover thematic areas such as: climate-smart agriculture, sustainable food systems and nutrition, food safety, food losses, sustainable management of natural resources, responsible governance of tenure.

The world has witnessed extraordinary economic growth, poverty reduction and increased life expectancy and population since the end of WWII, but it has occurred at the expense of undermining life support systems on Earth and subjecting future generations to the real risk of destabilising the planet. This timely book exposes and explores this colossal environmental cost and the dangerous position the world is now in. Standing up for a Sustainable World is written by and about key individuals who have not only understood the threats to our planet, but also become witness to them and confronted them.

The State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture is FAO's first flagship publication on the global status of land and water resources. It is an 'advocacy' report, to be published every three to five years, and targeted at senior level decision makers in agriculture as well as in other sectors. SOLAW is aimed at sensitizing its target audience on the status of land resources at global and regional levels and FAO's viewpoint on appropriate recommendations for policy formulation. SOLAW focuses on these key dimensions of analysis: (i) quantity, quality of land and water resources, (ii) the rate of use and sustainable management of these resources in the context of relevant socio-economic driving factors and concerns, including food security and poverty, and climate change. This is the first time that a global, baseline status report on land and water resources has been made. It is based on several global spatial databases (e.g. land suitability for agriculture, land use and management, land and water degradation and depletion) for which FAO is the world-recognized data source. Topical and emerging issues on land and water are dealt with in an integrated rather than sectoral manner. The implications of the status and trends are used to advocate remedial interventions which are tailored to major farming systems within different geographic regions.

Winner of the W.W. Howells Book Prize from the American Anthropological Association and named one of the best science books of 2021 by Science News “DeSilva takes us on a brilliant, fun, and scientifically deep stroll through history, anatomy, and evolution, in order to illustrate the powerful story of how a particular mode of movement helped make us one of the most wonderful, dangerous and fascinating species on Earth.”—Agustín Fuentes, Professor of Anthropology, Princeton University and author of Why We Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being “Breezy popular science at its best. . . . Makes a compelling case overall.”—Science News Blending history, science, and culture, a stunning and highly engaging evolutionary story exploring how walking on two legs allowed humans to become the planet’s dominant species. Humans are the only mammals to walk on two, rather than four legs—a locomotion known as bipedalism. We strive to be upstanding citizens, honor those who stand tall and proud, and take a stand against injustices. We follow in each other’s footsteps and celebrate a child’s beginning to walk. But why, and how, exactly, did we take our first steps? And at what cost? Bipedalism has its drawbacks: giving birth is more difficult and dangerous; our running speed is much slower than other animals; and we suffer a variety of ailments, from hernias to sinus problems. In First Steps, paleoanthropologist Jeremy DeSilva explores how unusual and extraordinary this seemingly ordinary ability is. A seven-million-year journey to the very origins of the human lineage, First Steps shows how upright walking was a gateway to many of the other attributes that make us human—from our technological abilities, our thirst for exploration, our use of language–and may have laid the foundation for our species’ traits of compassion, empathy, and altruism. Moving from developmental psychology labs to ancient fossil sites throughout Africa and Eurasia, DeSilva brings to life our adventure walking on two legs. Delving deeply into the story of our past and the new discoveries rewriting our understanding of human evolution, First Steps examines how walking upright helped us rise above all over species on this planet. First Steps includes an eight-page color photo insert.

From the bestselling author of Lab Girl comes a slim, urgent missive on the defining issue of our time: here is Hope Jahren on climate change, our timeless pursuit of more, and how the same human ambition that got us here can also be our salvation. Hope Jahren is an award-winning geobiologist, a brilliant writer, and one of the seven billion people with whom we share this earth. The Story of More is her impassioned open letter to humanity as we stand at the crossroads of survival and extinction. Jahren celebrates the long history of our enterprising spirit--which has tamed wild crops, cured diseases, and sent us to the moon--but also shows how that spirit has created excesses that are quickly warming our planet to dangerous levels. In short, highly readable chapters, she takes us through the science behind the key inventions--from electric power to large-scale farming and automobiles--that, even as they help us, release untenable amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. She explains the current and projected consequences of greenhouse gases--from superstorms to rising sea levels--and shares the science-based tools that could help us fight back. At once an explainer on the mechanisms of warming and a capsule history of human development, The Story of More illuminates the link between our consumption habits and our endangered earth. It is the essential pocket primer on climate change that will leave an indelible impact on everyone who reads it.