Speaker: Amos Tai (Chinese Univ Hong Kong)
Topic: How do land use, agricultural and dietary changes affect human health and ecosystems via modifying the atmosphere?

Human appropriation of land resources via agriculture and forestry significantly shapes atmospheric chemistry and climate, with important ramifications for pressing environmental issues such as air pollution, climate change, food insecurity and forest degradation. In this talk, we will examine a few examples of how such activities may have led to unexpected human health and ecological consequences via Earth system connections. Integrating long-term datasets with Earth system modeling, for instance, we will show how land use change (e.g., deforestation) and rising food demands may worsen ozone pollution and damage human health, while enhancing the deposition of nitrogen and nutrients onto terrestrial ecosystems. We will also show how dietary changes in the Chinese population, mainly in the form of higher meat consumption, might have enhanced agricultural nitrogen emissions and worsened particulate matter pollution in China, thus leading to more premature deaths. We will further discuss how more sustainable dietary options, agricultural and forest management may help alleviate some of these pressing global environmental problems.