One of the world's largest gathering of scientists who study global environmental change will take place this November in Beijing. More than 1,000 international scientists from a variety of natural and social science disciplines will attend an open science conference sponsored by the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) to share their assessments of natural and human-driven changes to Earth.

Titled Global Environmental Change: Regional Challenges, the four-day event will feature more than 40 plenary and parallel sessions devoted to topics including environmental change in China, the effects of global environmental change on food security, sustainable water management, human health, and biodiversity, and carbon management in megacities. The sessions will underscore how regional sustainability challenges can best be met by an integrated, global approach.

News can be expected on the following topics and more:

• How can food systems be better managed to improve food security in the face of global environmental change?

• Can the Earth's finite water resources be managed sustainably to meet the growing needs of humans and of nature in ways that avert a coming crisis?

• How will changing environmental conditions affect human health and how can we measure it?

• What are the implications of changing climate and rising CO2 levels to biodiversity? How will our coasts be affected?

• What steps can we take to make cities and urban regions more carbon friendly?

• Can an effective post-Kyoto climate change regime be designed?

• How will a changed monsoon climate impact further the social and economic development of Monsoon Asia?

Speakers will include Dahe Qin of the China Meteorological Administration, Rik Leemans of Wageningen University and Oran Young of the University of California-Santa Barbara. They, plus
'"/>

Contact: Mareile Wolff
osc@essp.org
49-471-483-11253
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research
18-Aug-2006