Adaptation to Climate Change

Regional Case Studies

Because specific climate change impacts cannot be perfectly modeled, case studies that examine social and ecological responses to climate variability are a valuable tool for climate change adaptation. Past responses to drought or extreme events in sensitive areas can be extrapolated to other regions that may experience these stresses in a climatologically altered world. Some examples are cost-benefit analysis that indicates the need for a planned retreat from hurricane-prone coastlines and vulnerability studies in areas that are currently climatologically marginal that examine how producers respond to current droughts or other weather anomalies. These studies are occurring in less developed areas, such as the African Sahel region (grazing impacts), Southern Africa (agriculture, wildlife, and flooding), and Southern Asia (agriculture and extreme events), and also in more developed regions, such as London (heat stress), Arizona (water availability), and Greenland (resource extraction).

Environmental Management Goals

Specific management goals for climate change adaptation differ depending on the environmental systems examined, but efforts have generally focused on the most climatologically sensitive systems—human health, agriculture, water resources, forestry, coastal areas, and natural ecosystems. Climate change impacts will depend on system sensitivity as well as ability to adapt. For example, rain-fed cotton production in West Texas is already sensitive to subtle shifts in precipitation, and even a small change will have a large impact. Small changes in more humid parts of the world will require less adaptation. Humans have adapted to the environment throughout history. The climate change adaptation process will merely be a more rapid and better thought out process instead of an ad hoc one—proactive rather than reactive—so that the overall costs to society can be minimized, at least in the wealthier nations. Current and historic losses from climate variability (droughts, hurricanes, etc.) without any change in greenhouse gas levels have been extreme at times, and thus no-regrets policies are relatively easy for society and policymakers to support. However, poor or low-lying countries such as Bangladesh and the Maldives have little or no ability to adapt to climate change effects such as a rise in the sea level.

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