“We cannot ignore the new reality that climate change has become a major foreign policy issue in the 21^st century,” a new film by Hal and Marilyn Weiner concludes.

From the Roman poet Juvenal’s observations about bread and circuses to Marie Antoinette’s proclamation, “let them eat cake!” the link between food and political stability is well established in pop culture. In academic and policy circles, however, it’s a source of considerable debate.

Imagine an overgrown perennial garden. Impenetrable, shrubby bushes knit themselves together in long rows. Grasses reach chest high. Native hardwood trees hog the perimeter.

The culmination of five years of work by three working groups comprising hundreds of scientists around the world, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment was released in parts throughout this year. A newly released synthesis presents their findings in one document.

As is becoming clear, climate change, environmental degradation, population, and poverty alleviation are inextricably linked in many parts of the world. [Video Below]

At high noon, Devi KC is still deep in the daily chores she started at sunrise: brewing tea and cooking a meal of rice, lentils and spinach for her husband and teenage son; pumping and hauling water from the nearby well; harvesting hay from her field; and sweeping road dirt from her front porch.

Viewed from afar, the two-mile-long Mosul Dam is an impressive sight on the flat, sunbaked northern plains.