The Center on Food Security and the Environment is a joint effort of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
Climate
Recent Scholarly Publications
Records 24 / 125
Climate change is increasing the risk of extreme autumn wildfire conditions across California
March 2020
California has experienced devastating autumn wildfires in recent years.
Verification of extreme event attribution: Using out-of-sample observations to assess changes in probabilities of unprecedented events
March 2020
Independent verification of anthropogenic influence on specific extreme climate events remains elusive. This study presents a framework for such verification.
Does Information About Climate Risk Affect Property Values?
February 2020
Floods and other climate hazards pose a widespread and growing threat to housing and infrastructure around the world.
On the role of anthropogenic climate change in the emerging food crisis in southern Africa in the 2019–2020 growing season
February 2020
Researchers including David Lobell analyze how human-caused climate change has impacted a water defecit in Southern Africa and might contribute to a rising food security crisis in the region.
Flood Size Increases Nonlinearly Across the Western United States in Response to Lower Snow‐Precipitation Ratios
December 2019
Many mountainous and high‐latitude regions have experienced more precipitation as rain rather than snow due to warmer winter temperatures.
Causes of Indonesia’s forest fires
November 2019
The economic costs of Indonesia’s 2015 forest fires are estimated to exceed US $16 billion, with more than 100,000 premature deaths.
Model vs. experiment to predict crop losses—Response
December 2018
Our Report draws attention to a complex but understudied issue: How will climate warming alter losses of major food crops to insect pests?
Increase in crop losses to insect pests in a warming climate
August 2018
Crop responses to climate warming suggest that yields will decrease as growing-season temperatures increase.
Estimating global agricultural effects of geoengineering using volcanic eruptions
August 2018
Solar radiation management is increasingly considered to be an option for managing global temperatures1,2, yet the economic effects of ameliorating climatic changes by scattering sunlight back to...
Large potential reduction in economic damages under UN mitigation targets
May 2018
International climate change agreements typically specify global warming thresholds as policy targets, but the relative economic benefits of achieving these temperature targets remain poorly...
Unprecedented rates of land-use transformation in modelled climate change mitigation pathways
May 2018
Integrated assessment models generate climate change mitigation scenarios consistent with global temperature targets.
Differences, or lack thereof, in wheat and maize yields under three low-warming scenarios
March 2018
The availability of climate model experiments under three alternative scenarios stabilizing at warming targets inspired by the COP21 agreements (a 1.5 ºC not exceed, a 1.5 ºC with overshoot and a 2...
Increasing drought and diminishing benefits of elevated carbon dioxide for soybean yields across the US Midwest
November 2017
Elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations ([CO2]) are expected to increase C3 crop yield through the CO2 fertilization effect (CFE) by stimulating photosynthesis and by reducing stomatal conductance...
Comparing estimates of climate change impacts from process-based and statistical crop models
January 2017
The potential impacts of climate change on crop productivity are of widespread interest to those concerned with addressing climate change and improving global food security.
Opportunities for advances in climate change economics
April 2016
There have been dramatic advances in understanding the physical science of climate change, facilitated by substantial and reliable research support.
Agricultural adaptation to climate change in rich and poor countries: Current modeling practice and potential for empirical contributions
February 2016
In this paper we discuss the scope of the adaptation challenge facing world agriculture in the coming decades.
Growing sensitivity of maize to water scarcity under climate change
January 2016
Climate change can reduce crop yields and thereby threaten food security.
Pharaoh's Dream Revisited: An Integrated US Midwest Field Research Network for Climate Adaptation
January 2016
We're being warned of future grain failures—not by the dreams of a biblical Pharaoh, but by modern computer model predictions.
Pharaoh's Dream Revisited: An Integrated US Midwest Field Research Network for Climate Adaptation
December 2015
We're being warned of future grain failures—not by the dreams of a biblical Pharaoh, but by modern computer model predictions.
Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production
November 2015
Growing evidence demonstrates that climatic conditions can have a profound impact on the functioning of modern human societies, but effects on economic activity appear inconsistent.
Improving the monitoring of crop productivity using spaceborne solar-induced fluorescence
November 2015
Large-scale monitoring of crop growth and yield has important value for forecasting food production and prices and ensuring regional food security.
Estimated impacts of emission reductions on wheat and maize crops
October 2015
We assess the benefits of climate change mitigation for global maize and wheat production over the 21st century by comparing outcomes under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 as simulated by two large initial...
What aspects of future rainfall changes matter for crop yields in West Africa?
September 2015
Abstract: How rainfall arrives, in terms of its frequency, intensity and the timing and duration of rainy season, may have a large influence on rainfed agriculture.
People
Rosamond L. Naylor Senior Fellow William Wrigley Professor of Earth System Science, Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Professor, by courtesy, Economics, Senior Fellow and Founding Director, Center on Food Security and the Environment 
Pamela Matson Chester Naramore Dean of the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, FSE Affiliated Faculty Professor, Earth Sciences, Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute 
Noah Diffenbaugh Kara J. Foundation Professor and Kimmelman Family Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment 
Sam Heft-Neal Research Scholar, Center on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford Department of Earth System Science 
