Most
of the blog posts that I have written have described how to mitigate climate
change, with the most important points revolving around environmental
education, creating a sustainable culture throughout society, and pushing for
greenhouse gas reductions in an environmental movement. Mitigating climate change is only half of the
problem. Climate change is already
occurring and is going to continue to worsen, even if we stop polluting
today. The other half of the climate
change problem is how we are going to adapt.
This problem is first brought up in
the article “The Darkening Sea: What Carbon Emissions Are Doing to the
Ocean.” In this article, it was
mentioned that climate change will continue and the ocean will continue to acidify
even if the production of greenhouse gases stopped today because the ocean is
not in equilibrium with the air in regards to carbon dioxide. As a result, a percentage of the carbon
dioxide that we have emitted will end up diffusing into the ocean until that
equilibrium is reached. The other
upsetting point in this article was made by Ken Caldeira, who stated that under
his climate models, whether we cut emissions or don’t, the ocean is predicted
to decrease in pH another 0.2 units and aragonite will end up being unsaturated
at the poles by the end of the century. Although
some models predict less ocean acidification than others, depending on how many
fossil fuels we burn, there will still be some negative outcomes that we will
have to adapt to.
So how do we adapt? Sea level rise will displace millions of
people, ocean acidification may decrease the amount of life in the oceans,
changing water patterns will make water a less common resource, and stronger
storms will hurt our communities and farmlands.
The first question is, who is the “we”?
Americans are privileged, and many of them have the financial ability to
avoid or deal with climate change. No
more water in your area? Pay to have
your water imported. Sea level
rise? Maybe sell your home. It is not this easy for everyone in America, but
Americans will be able to adapt much easier than those in developing
countries. In addition, the government
can provide aid to people who need it due to a catastrophe.
What about the developing countries
in the world? In the last article of the
book, a story about the devastating floods that have been hitting the
countryside in Nepal was discussed. These
Nepalese villages used to only have a small flood every decade, but they have
had two major floods in the last few years.
Human ingenuity can help the people here have shelter, as well as water
and food. Drip irrigation can help these
people to save water. Growing new
flood-resistant crops can help them to feed themselves. Minimizing deforestation can help to prevent
floods and landslides, or to at least minimize their effects so that they can
protect their homes. Moving uphill or
building a dam could help, but those things cost money and may require
fundraising of some sort, which probably will not come. The lack of money makes these adaptations
harder, but they must be made in order for populations affected by climate
change to survive.
In conclusion, as is made clear in
the first article, climate change is and will continue to occur, so climate
change adaptation is becoming increasingly important. Developed countries have money and a more
stable government who can provide aid to those who are hurt by climate
change. Developing countries need to
think ahead more, because if a disaster strikes, no one may be there to bail
them out.
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