Adaptation Nation

Gleick: A "concerted, well-funded, and aggressive anti-science campaign by climate change deniers and contrarians" at fault

2012-01-12T16:38:00.000-08:00

Check out Peter Gleick's blog post over on Forbes:

The 2011 Climate B.S.* of the Year Awards

[*B.S. means “Bad Science.” What did you think it meant?]

Youth of the United States vs. the U.S. Government

2012-01-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

A lawsuit based on the Public Trust Doctrine has been filed to demand that Congress provide viable climate recovery plans. The Federal complaint can be found here; associated state lawsuits have been filed for:

Alaska

Arizona

California

Colorado

Iowa

Minnesota

Montana

New Jersey

New Mexico

Oregon

Texas

Washington

An amicus brief in support of the federal complaint was filed by some of the country's eminent law professors on December 7, 2011.

The Oregon-based non-profit, Our Children's Trust, in collaboration with the iMatter Campaign and WITNESS, have developed a series of 10 short films about the impacts of climate change on youth plaintiffs. So far, three films have been released: Trust Alaska, Trust Montana, and Trust California.

The Climate Challenge: Fall 2011 issue of The Wildlife Professional

2012-01-03T10:53:00.000-08:00

Check out the Fall 2011 issue of The Wildlife Professional here.

New study suggests link between mercury in the Yukon River Basin and climate change

2011-10-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

Yukon River Basin (USGS)

The Yukon River Basin, which spans parts of Alaska, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory, has been found to contain 32 times the amount of mercury than other comparable sites. A five-year study, recently published in Environmental Science and Technology, shows that the Yukon River delivers more than five tons per year to the surrounding environment. Although the researchers believe there is no immediate threat to fish, wildlife, and humans, they are concerned that continued atmospheric deposition and more rapid permafrost thawing caused by increasing temperatures could exacerbate the issue. Reducing non-climate stressors like pollution may help decrease overall system vulnerability.

Can wildlife adapt to climate change?

2011-10-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

Recommendation for our kind readers...

2011-10-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

Are you all subscribed to the Climate Adaptation Exchange blog? You really should be. Not just because it's one word away from CAKE's full name but also because it's written by Joyce Coffee, who's really sharp and has great things to say, especially around climate adaptation and the private sector. Subscribe to the feed here and follow her on Twitter (@joycecoffee).

EPA's Climate Resilience Evaluation & Awareness Tool (CREAT) Upcoming Information Sessions

2011-10-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

Please check out the following flyer from our friends at the EPA's Climate Ready Water Utilities for information about upcoming webinars on CREAT. Also be sure to check out the related case study on CAKE here!

EcoAdapt's Dr. Jennie Hoffman and fellow working group members receive DOI Partners in Conservation Award!!!

2011-09-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the Vulnerability Assessment Workgroup Members who produced Scanning the Conservation Horizon: A Guide to Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment for their recent Department of the Interior Partners in Conservation Award! They were nominated by the U.S. Geological Survey and received the award because the "...guidebook is being used across...DOI bureaus and the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives to guide standardized vulnerability assessment of the resources it manages and will allow comparison of risk across DOI bureaus for a common understanding of the impacts of climate change."

Vulnerability Assessment Workgroup Members include:

Naomi Edelson, National Wildlife Federation (Chair)
Nancy Green, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Co-Chair)
Rocky Beach, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Molly Cross, Wildlife Conservation Society
Carolyn Enquist, The Nature Conservancy
Deborah Finch, U.S. Forest Service
Hector Galbraith, Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences
Evan Girvetz, The Nature Conservancy
Patty Glick, National Wildlife Federation
John Gross, National Park Service
Katharine Hayhoe, Texas Tech University; ATMOS Research and Consulting
Jennie Hoffman, EcoAdapt
Doug Inkley, National Wildlife Federation
Bruce Jones, U.S. Geological Survey
Linda Joyce, U.S. Forest Service
Josh Lawler, University of Washington
Dennis Ojima, The Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment
John O’Leary, Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife
Bruce Stein, National Wildlife Federation
Bruce Young, NatureServe

For more on other award recipients, please click here.

Vulnerability and Readiness Rankings on the Global Adaptation Index

2011-09-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

Check out the Global Adaptation Index, which summarizes the vulnerability and readiness of countries around the world. The index considers exposure, sensitivity, and socioeconomic factors with relation to climate change.

The highest ranked on the index are Denmark, Switzerland, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. The lowest ranked are Ethiopia, Chad, Burundi, Zimbabwe, and the Central African Republic. The United States, Canada, and most European countries are in the top 20.

Adaptation Mavens: A rose is a rose is a rose, or is it resilience?

2011-08-31T17:04:00.000-07:00

Dear Adaptation Mavens,

I was reading through the NWF's recent report on "Moving the Conservation Goalposts: A Review of Climate Change Adaptation Literature" (2011). They brought up the question of Resilience and whether or not that is the right goal for adaptation. I'm curious about your thoughts. Is resilience the right approach? Or, does it imply too much focus on maintaining the current social-ecological conditions and not allow enough space for transformation and taking advantage of the opportunities presented by a changing climate?

Thanks,

Sascha Petersen, Adaptation International

Dear Sascha,

Read the rest over on CAKE...

Storms, hurricanes, and climate change, oh my!

2011-08-31T08:59:00.001-07:00

For those of you who have heard or read that the links made between climate change and extreme storms like Hurricane Irene are tenuous at best, I'd encourage you to check out the piece Joseph Romm, editor of Climate Progress, wrote the other day over at Grist: Climate change makes hurricanes like Irene more destructive. He discusses the typical back-and-forth about climate change (or, dare we say "global warming") that comes with an event like Hurricane Irene and suggests that the media plays a role in the confusion by asking the wrong questions. He cites a Climate Central post:

The question: Is this weather disaster caused by climate change?
Wrong question.

Here's the right question: Is climate change making this storm worse than it would have been otherwise?

Answer: Absolutely.

In Climate Savvy, Drs. Lara Hansen and Jennie Hoffman touch on this question:

The science surrounding the effect of climate change on hurricane or cyclone frequency and intensity is not yet clear, and the nature of historical trends is controversial due to the patchy nature of storm detection prior to the advent of global satellite coverage in the 1970s. From a theoretical standpoint, the expected effect of climate change on storm frequency and intensity depends on the relative importance of various elements of the climate system, such as absolute sea surface temperature, relative sea surface temperature across ocean basins, lower stratospheric temperature, and wind shear. If absolute sea surface temperature alone is the primary determinant of storm frequency and intensity, we can expect an unprecedented increase in storminess. If wind shear is more important, some regions would see a decline in storm intensity and frequency. Recent models incorporating a variety of factors and climate models suggest an overall trend toward fewer but more intense storms, with more rain carried by each storm.

Regardless of long-term trends in storm frequency and intensity, sea level rise will increase flooding and erosion risk along coasts. The increase in heavy development along the world's coastlines as well as increasing deforestation along vulnerable hillsides greatly increases the vulnerability of both human and natural communities to large storm events.

Like Elizabeth Kolbert writes over on The New Yorker site, "[we] can comfort ourselves by saying that this particular storm was not necessarily caused by global warming. Or we can acknowledge the truth, which is that we are making the world a more dangerous place and, what’s more, that we know it."

Sea level rising? No worries - live on the water.

2011-08-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

In addition to the hilarious comments, I enjoyed reading the 10 innovative ideas that let us live on water piece over at the Mother Nature Network site this morning.

There's the Lilypads, recycled plastic islands, and Swimming cities, but my favorite is the Water-Scraper, not so much for its aesthetic design but because it's so just clever:

"The creators of the Water-Scraper believe that the effects of climate change mean it’s 'only a natural progression that we will populate the seas someday,' so they designed this livable, sustainable structure for humans to occupy. The Water-Scraper uses wave, wind and solar power, and its bioluminescent tentacles provide sea fauna a place to live while collecting energy through kinetic movements. This floating structure even generates its own food through farming, aquaculture and hydroponics. A small forest is nestled on the top of the Water-Scraper, along with wind turbines, a garden and livestock, and the living areas are located just below sea level where natural light is best."

Follow up to yesterday's climate justice blog

2011-08-04T17:00:00.000-07:00

Another development in the case of climate justice issues to follow up on yesterday's entry, Environmental Justice: The Good, the Bad, and the Unavoidable of a Changing Climate. A new report has been released by our friends at the National Wildlife Federation entitled, Facing the Storm: Indian Tribes, Climate-Induced Weather Extremes, and the Future for Indian Country. It covers some of the major economic, social, cultural, and ecological vulnerabilities of Native American tribes and nations in the United States.

Environmental Justice: The Good, the Bad, and the Unavoidable of a Changing Climate

2011-08-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

Environmental justice is essentially “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).” When people suffer disproportionately from environmental risks or hazards, it’s a case of environmental injustice; when viewed through the climate lens, that is climate injustice. The heaviest burden of global climate change will fall on low-income, already impoverished communities.

There have been a few interesting articles and reports recently about the disproportionate effects of climate change on various human communities:

The Good: Incorporating Climate Justice Issues into National Policy

The Environmental Protection Agency is required to develop an EPA-specific Climate Change Adaptation Plan by June 2012. Administrator Lisa Jackson states that environmental justice implications of climate change will be key to the agency's policy.

The Bad: Global Food Security Issues

Increasingly shorter growing seasons associated with climatic changes also pose food security issues for already impoverished people living in the tropics. For example, the recent report by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research’s Program on Climate Change Agriculture, and Food Security (CGIAR CCAFS), Mapping Hotspots of Climate Change and Food Insecurity in the Global Tropics, states that over the next 40 years, these shorter seasons will drastically affect food access for millions of people. Farmers may have to consider drastic changes to their practices, including altering crops harvested. A Warming Planet Struggles to Feed Itself is a great article from the June 4^th edition of the New York Times by Justin Gillis about food production and pricing in a changing climate.

The Unavoidable: Forced Relocation and Migration of Entire Countries or Communities

The June 3^rd edition of the Sydney Morning Herald featured an article about The Hungry Tide, a documentary that focuses on climate justice issues facing the village of Tebekenikoora on Kiribati. Many of the locals on Kiribati live about 6 feet above sea level, so even minimal changes in sea level have caused massive erosion and saltwater contamination of drinking water supplies. The president of Kiribati has stated that relocation is likely the only option available. Forced relocation is already happening in other areas; for example, the Native Villages of Kivalina, Shishmaref, and Newtok are in various stages of relocation because of massive erosion, melting sea ice, and increasing storm surges along the coast of Alaska.

Adaptation for all: It is clear that adaptation is needed since we are already committed to a certain amount of climate change. How can adaptation investments be adequately distributed among the citizens of the world? How can we support innovative solutions to major global challenges?

Adaptation advancing in the Western United States

2011-07-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

On June 30^th, the Western Governors Association (WGA) signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to advance climate services and better educate resource managers, organizations, and businesses affected by climate change in the region.

The agreement has three objectives:

Reduce risk of extreme events (droughts, fires, floods, and cyclones) and improve the resilience of coastal, marine, and estuarine areas through an improved flow of information to support management.
Coordinate with other federal efforts to address climate change and response.
Work collaboratively in the region to identify key vulnerabilities and options to improve planning and response

Vice Chair Gov. Chris Gregoire said in the WGA press release, "A good working relationship with NOAA in providing the science and information services states need will help us all build healthy and resilient communities and economies."

Similar to the WGA and NOAA collaboration, the recently developed regional Climate Science Centers (CSCs) represent a strong partnership of managers and scientists. An order signed last year by the Department of the Interior outlined the goals of the Energy and Climate Change Council to help build upon the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Centers, first created by the U.S. Geological Survey. The CSCs act as regional research branches, providing climate change impact and analysis data to people and organizations planning or implementing adaptation measures. In addition, the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) also serve to spread information to involved parties. Broken up into 21 distinct zones, all areas of the United States have a cooperative designed to preserve the land, water, and wildlife of the region. The LCCs partner government with private agencies to ensure that best practices and new knowledge are available to anyone seeking to apply climate change information into practice.

- Aliyah Kovner

The Adaptation Mavens Hit Washington, D.C.!

2011-07-10T18:26:00.000-07:00

From June 22-24, around 80 people actively engaged in adapting natural resource conservation and management for climate change gathered in Washington D.C. for Adaptation 2011, sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation to encourage practitioners to share ideas and move the field forward. The crowd had a good mix of federal, tribal, state, non-profit, and academic representatives. Many participants arrived fresh from a meeting of the National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy workgroup.

The meeting included presentations on a literature review and practitioner survey done in preparation for the meeting, as well as on characteristics of climate-smart conservation, frameworks and processes for adaptation planning, and the implications of climate change for conservation goals. The most interesting presentations, though, were a series of four panels on regional adaptation efforts: the Colorado River system, the Southern Sierra Nevada, Maryland, and the Bering Sea. Hearing different perspectives from each system provided a rich view of the projects.

There were also several breakout group sessions. One of the most interesting discussions in one of our groups was on the need for a climate change adaptation “reference librarian.” There has been a recent explosion of adaptation portals and toolkits (see an excellent blog on Portal Proliferation Syndrome from Geoff Barnard) aimed at making it easy for the curious to find the information they need, but alas the number of “one-stop adaptation shops” has led many practitioners to feel that they’re drowning in a sea of information with few easy ways to find what’s worthwhile and the relevant to their work.

While we may eventually see some portals settle in as the go-to sources within a few sectors, the need for person-to-person interactions is likely to remain strong. A 2009 survey of land managers and restoration practitioners in California found that while web-based tools were seen as relatively unimportant, one-on-one interactions were seen as very important and also hard to come by. An adaptation reference librarian (or suite of librarians) could be a great source of such one-on-one interaction. People could write, call, or email with a question about particular types of case studies, tools, etc., and the reference librarian (someone skilled at searching through the vast trove of information) would help find something best suited to their needs—kind of like an adaptation extension service with the librarians serving a similar function to extension agents. The librarians might even get to be field librarians, sometimes leaving the library stacks to
drive the adaptation bookmobile of knowledge to the unsuspecting prospective reader. The challenge will be finding a funding mechanism. Many private foundations aren’t interested in providing funds for this sort of effort, and while NOAA’s National Climate Service could have been a good home for adaptation reference librarians, it appears to be dead in the water at least temporarily (thank you, Congress!).

Another idea that floated at Adaptation 2011 was the need for an opportunity for larger groups of adaptation practitioners to convene, share lessons and learn new tricks. This is currently being explored as a National Conference on Climate Change Adaptation and it hopes to see the light of day in 2012. If you are interested in such a meeting, let the Adaptation Mavens know. Send us a line at info@ecoadapt.org with a testimonial for the need for such an event, your interest in helping make it happen, or an offer to help financially support it!

-Lara and Jennie

New Adaptation Mavens Column on CAKE: Don't Forget to Pay Attention

2011-06-30T15:17:00.000-07:00

Dear Adaptation Mavens,

A massive heat wave struck our community a decade ago leaving several people dead and many more hospitalized. We had extended power outages, severe water restrictions, and lots of environmental problems. Thanks to this wake-up call, we’ve started to incorporate climate savvy actions into our regional planning and management schemes. We’ve planted more trees for shade, put in place water and energy conservation strategies, and created emergency action plans. Most folks are happy with the changes—property values are up and crime is down in our newly greened-up neighborhoods, and a number of businesses have commented that they’ve noticed significant financial savings thanks to using less water and energy—but a few people are asking whether the changes we have made are making any difference. How can we know if adaptation is working?

Help!

Looking for Options to Stay on Track

Read more »

Climate-smart Restoration in the Great Lakes

2011-06-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

EcoAdapt and the National Wildlife Federation are working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to create climate-smart restoration and coastal planning guidelines for the Great Lakes region. Last week, the report Restoring the Great Lakes’ Coastal Future: Technical Guidance for the Design and Implementation of Climate-Smart Coastal Restoration Projects in the Great Lakes Region was released.

50/50/50: Stories of Climate Change and Climate Action in the United States

2011-06-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

I wanted to call everyone's attention to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Open Spaces 50/50/50 series. Since Earth Day (April 22), the FWS and partners have been sharing stories of climate change and climate action from around the country. The concept is simple: for 50 weekdays, one story per state is unveiled. Our friend, David Eisenhauer, is the primary contact for the series.

Some suggested stories to check out:

Burning the Midnight Oil: Feds at Work

2011-06-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

There have been a slew of updates from U.S. federal agencies in the last few weeks regarding climate change adaptation policies. These policies were recommended by the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force. Some of the policy statements released are from the:

These policy statements are an important step forward for federal agencies in addressing climate change within and across bureaucratic boundaries. By June 2012, full climate change adaptation plans for each federal agency will be developed.

New Adaptation Mavens Advice Column over at CAKE

2011-05-25T21:16:00.001-07:00

Don't Pave Me In

Dear Adaptation Mavens,

I manage a small land trust created to protect a lovely little wetland beloved by birds, birders, and human or amphibian couples seeking a romantic getaway. In addition to the wetland there’s a nice meadow that boasts gorgeous spring flowers, and a beautiful hardwood forest around the entire perimeter of the trust land. We’re not far from a good-sized urban area, and we just heard about plans to create a large suburban development right next to our land trust! Acres of currently forested hillside upslope from our land will be cleared for houses, and of course there will be more roads put in to accommodate all the new traffic.

Guest Blog: The "Risky" Business of Adaptation

2011-05-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

By: Alexander (Sascha) Petersen, Executive Director of Adaptation International based in Austin, Texas.

Becoming Climate Savvy doesn’t happen overnight. It takes spending time on CAKE for concepts such as risk, resilience, and vulnerability to become second nature and really roll off the tongue. Before getting to that point, it almost feels like you are learning a new language. Yet, learning this language is important because these concepts are embedded in approaches to adaptation from all around the world. Let’s take a moment to focus on risk.

Adaptation planning frameworks from Australia to Canada have used the traditional concept of risk (hazard x likelihood) to help prioritize climate impacts and potential vulnerabilities. For example, ICLEI Oceana’s Adaptation Toolkit (2008) has a risk matrix that can be used to categorize climate impacts into 4 different levels.

	CONSEQUENCE
		Negligible	Minor	Moderate	Major	Catastrophic
LIKELIHOOD		1	2	3	4	5
Almost Certain	5	Medium	Medium	High	Very High	Very High
Likely	4	Low	Medium	Medium	High	Very High
Possible	3	Low	Low	Medium	High	High
Unlikely	2	Low	Low	Medium	Medium	High
Rare	1	Low	Low	Low	Medium	Medium

Table 1: Priority Risk Ranking Chart, Local Government Cities Climate Adaptation Toolkit, 2008, ICLEI Oceana

Climate impacts that are both almost certain and have the potential for major or catastrophic impacts are the most critical and those that are either unlikely or have very low potential impact are the least critical to address. The question then becomes: Is it enough to focus on prioritizing climate impacts due to risk? Or, should we use project specific risk tolerance or sensitivity to guide adaptation planning?

Let’s explore this idea and consider the potential sea level rise impacts on two coastal facilities, a gazebo in a park and level one trauma center hospital. For the sake of this example, let’s set aside the legal and regulatory issues as well as the multi-jurisdictional framework for the coastal zone that would complicate the matter, and limit our discussion to the two facilities and the classic three general sea level rise response options: 1) protect, 2) accommodate, or 3) retreat. Now, to be clear, I have nothing against gazebos; in fact, I generally find them quite pleasing, but even the most casual or non-climate savvy observer can see that it doesn’t make sense to respond to sea level rise in the same way for both these projects. Given the uncertainty in future sea levels, risk tolerance or sensitivity should be used in selecting the appropriate sea level rise scenario for planning.

For the gazebo, it makes sense to select a lower sea level rise scenario that would require limited investment (keep in mind that either of the three general response options could still apply, you could: 1) build a sea wall to protect the gazebo, 2) move the gazebo to higher ground in the park, or 3) relocate the gazebo to another park entirely). Although the risk of this sea level threshold being exceeded may be relatively high, the sensitivity of gazebo and risk of potential loss is relatively minor. Conversely, the sensitivity of the hospital’s critical trauma facility to salt water inundation is high and justifies the selection of a higher sea level rise scenario for planning, in order to decrease the likelihood of that threshold being exceeded.

The United States, and many other countries, have been using a risk based approach to management for a long time. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) bases many of its requirements on the 100-year floodplain and, in general, we as a society have decided that a 1 in 100 chance of flooding is worth additional requirements (i.e. more free board or flood insurance) in order to limit the potential impact of that flooding. Using the higher resolution risk tolerance or sensitivity approach, it would no longer be enough to have two classifications (in the 100-year floodplain or outside the 100-year floodplain) and two sets of requirements. The value of the built infrastructure (or by extension the natural environment) and the potential impact of its loss would determine the level of risk planning required. For the gazebo in the above example, perhaps planning for a 50-year flood event would be sufficient. For the hospital, planning for the 1,000-year event may be more important. Of course, climate change is shifting what it means to be a 100-year flood event and the past is no longer an adequate predictor of the future, but that is a topic for another post.

The Netherlands has already taken this approach on a regional basis. Some high value areas are protected against 10,000-year flood events (red) where other areas are only protected to a 1,250-year flood standard (green).

Figure 1: Dike Rings and Safety Standards in the Netherlands. Eijsbergen, Poot, & van der Geer, 2008, Flood Risk Understanding Concepts. Rijksoverheid (Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management)

Of course implementing this approach isn’t trivial and there are many factors not included in the description above. However, using risk tolerance and sensitivity to “right size” the adaptation response to the project is a great way to stretch limited resources and get the most out of our adaptation efforts. Now, that’s being climate savvy.

-- Sascha

adaptation international

David and Goliath: Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and Rising Sea Levels in North Carolina

2011-04-25T15:49:00.000-07:00

I woke up to NPR's Morning Edition story about one of our favorite adaptation projects on CAKE in the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuary in North Carolina. NPR interviewed some volunteers and our friends, Brian Boutin (TNC) and Mike Bryant (USFWS), about the project.

Of the various "climate goliaths" at work on our shorelines, sea level rise is one of the biggest. We discuss some specific examples of sea level rise and related impacts in our recent report; for example, sea level rise may cause saltwater inundation of wetlands and barrier islands, salinization of water supplies, and increased erosion and flooding that will affect coastal infrastructure.

Volunteers at Alligator River NWR - John Warner/TNC

The Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge is addressing these possible effects through a pilot project and partnership between the North Carolina chapter of The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The project is evaluating the effects of different adaptation strategies on areas impacted (or likely to be impacted) by sea level rise. The strategies include constructing oyster reefs to buffer shorelines from waves and storm surges, restoring the natural hydrologic regime and associated wetland systems, and planting salt- and flood-tolerant species. By testing these strategies and employing adaptive management techniques, they are, as NPR puts it, "learning what works — and what doesn't work — in their struggle to fight back the sea."

Are We Adapting to Climate Change? A Global Perspective

2011-04-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

Climate change adaptation research and on-the-ground work is occurring across the globe, but who is adapting and how? What is motivating adaptation? Does adaptation differ among countries, regions, or sectors? A recent paper by Berrang-Ford et al. (2010) attempts to answer these questions by examining over 1700 peer-reviewed articles published between 2006-2009 to assess how adaptation is occurring at a global level.

Map showing distribution of reporting on climate change adaptation. Numbers indicate amount of publications on adaptation activities in each country (Berrang-Ford et al. 2010).

Question 1: Who is adapting to climate change? Proactive vs. reactive responses

Proactive – These types of adaptations were more frequently reported from developed or high-income countries and were more likely to be stimulated by long-term changes in climatic averages or isolated extreme events. In addition, long-term proactive planning was more likely to be undertaken by higher levels of government and involve non-resource sectors (e.g., infrastructure, transportation). Common adaptation actions included preparing for projected impacts, monitoring, increasing awareness, building partnerships, and improving learning. Check out our case studies on the Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE): Climate Change Adaption Policy for the Water Sector in Mexico, the U.S. Climate Ready Water Utilities Program, and the U.S. Global Change Research Program for examples of higher-level adaptation actions.

Reactive – These types of adaptations were more frequently reported from low-income countries and were more likely to arise in response to things such as financial stimuli or resource availability. In addition, reactive adaptation actions tended to occur at the individual or household-level and included things such as avoiding or retreating, coping, adjusting, spreading risk, and securing resources. Check out our case study on food security in the Canadian Arctic, as well as our Tsiigehtchic and Paulatuk case studies to find out what these communities are doing to adapt to climate change impacts.

Question 2: What is motivating adaptation?

Increased climate variability such as decadal variability or extreme events were more likely to stimulate adaptation actions compared to long-term changes in average climatic conditions. This is likely due to the fact that extreme events provide readily observable ‘evidence’ that climate change is happening, and thus motivates adaptation responses in human systems. The most dominant stimulus motivating adaptation was changes in precipitation.

Question 3: Does adaptation differ among countries, regions, or sectors? Gaps in adaptation efforts

A disproportionate amount of adaptive action and research occurs in higher income countries as well as highly vulnerable low-income regions; less focus is placed on lower-middle or upper-middle income regions. In addition, elderly, women, and children have been identified as particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, however only 3% of publications referred to these groups. North American indigenous populations are more frequently reported on than other indigenous populations, particularly those related to Arctic or sub-Arctic populations.

For a global perspective on indigenous people adapting to climate change, check out our case study on the Indigenous People’s Global Summit on Climate Change.

While these trends provide important insight into where and why adaptation is occurring across the globe, more specific information on how adaptation is occurring is needed. What strategies are people trying? What’s working for them and what isn’t? As those of us at EcoAdapt work to expand the CAKE resource to include more of this type of information, help us out by sharing your own case study and adaptation insight (plus get free ice cream)!

Finally, the authors bring up an important point - adaptation action can take place in response to many different stimuli including climate, thus there is a need for ‘mainstreaming’ or ‘no-regrets adaptation’ where actions have multiple climatic and non-climatic benefits. Adopting this type of approach to adaptation helps ensure support from stakeholders at all levels.

- Jessi

CAKE user survey reminder!

2011-04-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

Help make CAKE better for you by filling out our user survey and be entered into a drawing to win a free book from our friends at Island Press!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CAKEuser