New Brunswick, N.J. (Aug. 8, 2019) – Rutgers University–New Brunswick Professor Pamela McElwee is available to comment on the United Nations report released today on Climate Change and Land that she co-authored.

McElwee, an associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, is a lead author of chapter 6: Interlinkages between desertification, land degradation, food security and GHG fluxes: synergies, trade-offs and integrated response options.

“This report brings together research on climate change, food systems, land degradation and biodiversity loss, reminding us that we depend on land for so many things, but it’s under major stress,” McElwee said. “The risks for disruption of our food supply, declining crop yields and loss of nutritional value, along with the threat of rising food prices from climate change, are very real. We also face risks to our food system if we try to rely on large-scale bioenergy production to reduce fossil fuel emissions, which most future scenarios to hold global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius require. We are in real trouble and have some major trade-offs to make.”

McElwee is available to comment at [email protected].

                                                                           ###

Broadcast interviews: Rutgers University has broadcast-quality TV and radio studios available for remote live or taped interviews with Rutgers experts. For more information, contact Neal Buccino at [email protected]

ABOUT RUTGERS—NEW BRUNSWICK
Rutgers University–New Brunswick is where Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, began more than 250 years ago. Ranked among the world’s top 60 universities, Rutgers’s flagship is a leading public research institution and a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. It has an internationally acclaimed faculty, 12 degree-granting schools and the Big Ten Conference’s most diverse student body.