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Simple Summary: Beef production is criticized for its contribution to global warming and its use of human-edible food as feed and hence needs to innovate. Relying on three case studies of beef production systems in Belgium, France, and Germany, we test, using the single-farm model FarmDyn, the interest of fast rotational grazing associated (redesign scenarios) or not (FRG scenarios) to crossbreeding strategies as innovation. The redesign scenarios are adapted to local conditions using early-maturing beef breeds on a French farm or Belgian Blue breeds in a German dairy system and a Belgian suckler cow system becoming, in this last type, a growing and fattening system. Fast rotational grazing induced a higher profit through cheaper feed but an increased workload in pasture management compared to the baseline situation. Beef production from crossbred dairy cows reduces the global warming potential of the systems because of the share of the environmental load with milk production. Crossbreeding with early-maturing breeds, in the French type, has little impact on global warming. The feed-food competition diminished by adapting the stocking rate to the grassland production potential and feeding of by-products. In the future, these simulations should be validated by field trials and a larger diversity of farms. In the context of a growing population, beef production is expected to reduce its consumption of human-edible food and its contribution to global warming. We hypothesize that implementing the innovations of fast rotational grazing and redesigning existing production systems using crossbreeding and sexing may reduce these impacts. In this research, the bio-economic model FarmDyn is used to assess the impact of such innovations on farm profit, workload, global warming potential, and feed-food competition. The innovations are tested in a Belgian system composed of a Belgian Blue breeder and a fattener farm, another system where calves raised in a French suckler cow farm are fattened in a farm in Italy, and third, a German dairy farm that fattens its male calves. The practice of fast rotational grazing with a herd of dairy-to-beef crossbred males is found to have the best potential for greenhouse gas reduction and a reduction of the use of human-edible food when by-products are available. Crossbreeding with early-maturing beef breeds shows a suitable potential to produce grass-based beef with little feed-food competition if the stocking rate considers the grassland yield potential. The results motivate field trials in order to validate the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Prior beliefs and demographics affect reading accuracy and knowledge gains from scenarios. • In contrast, effects from different visualization formats analyzed are relatively minor. • Graphs with steep slope are disadvantageous over tables and graphs with gradual slope. • Tailoring formats to demographic and country differences to some extent reduces adverse effects. While scenarios are used extensively for communication about climate change mitigation, little is known about the interpretation of these scenarios by citizens. We conducted a cross-country empirical evaluation of scenario visualizations for global mitigation, using online surveys in Germany (N = 379), Poland (N = 223), and France (N = 225). Each respondent received visualizations of the required changes in global carbon dioxide emissions and composition of electricity supply (fossil fuels, nuclear, and renewable sources) for limiting global warming to 1.5 °C. We evaluated the effects of respondents' demographics, prior beliefs, numeracy, and graph literacy on the reading accuracy and knowledge gains from the visualizations. We also included an experimental between-groups design on visualization format, where four groups received different graph formats (steep or gradual graphs with depictions of uncertainty ranges or scenario ensembles) and the fifth group received a table. Results showed that higher education level, numeracy, and graph literacy increased reading accuracy in all countries, while age reduced them. Respondents with prior beliefs about climate change mitigation that matched the information in the visualizations had also higher reading accuracy and knowledge gains. While the effects of different visualization formats were comparatively minor, customizing formats according to demographic and country differences was used to reduce adverse effects from these differences. These results emphasize the need to design visualizations that match characteristics of the intended audience and could inform better communication of climate change mitigation scenarios to non-expert audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately 10 km2 of new green roofs are built in Germany every year. About 85% of these are Extensive Green Roofs (EGR). An EGR with several research features was installed on new buildings belonging to the University of Applied Sciences Neubrandenburg in 1999. The results of the almost 20-year permanent survey of the climate effects of the green roof in contrast to gravel roofs are presented here. High-quality sensors, similar to those used by official weather stations, are in use, and data is collected every 10 s and aggregated to hourly values which enable comparisons to official measurements made by the DWD in Neubrandenburg and Berlin. The results show the typical urban heat island effect (UHI) and the mitigation effect of EGR. Whilst the temperature increased over the years due to the urban heat island effect, the temperature within the growing media in the green roof remained constant. The EGR has a stabilization effect of 1.5 K. This is good news for all those seeking a UHI mitigation solution for city centers. In a best-case scenario, the green roof potential of cities in Germany is between 3 and 8%. A value of 50% can be achieved for all buildings; roofs represent about ¼ of urban surfaces, and the cooling effect of 1.5 K in 20 years is a reasonable contribution to cooling cities and achieving environmental goals by greening urban surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]