Preventing climate change versus adapting to it: History shows that societies can adapt to changing climate conditions

By Kenneth P. Green

• This study explores what climate adaptation might look like in modern societies, based on measures taken in the past to adapt to projected climate changes, including higher temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and more frequent extreme weather events such as floods.
• The study examines the history of adaptation to flooding in the Delta Works of the Netherlands; the reduction of flood risk in the rivers of Europe; the success of the Thames Barrier of London; and the barriers protecting the canals and city of Venice.
• The study also examines the history of adaptation to extremes of heat by reviewing two very different examples of extreme heat management, in Ahmedabad, India, and the United States.
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  The shrinking of icebergs is having an impact that cannot be reversed.

  The Netherlands Delta Works, the Thames Barrier, the canal control system of Venice, and river controls in Europe show that changes to these ecologic systems, even fairly rapid ones, can be successfully controlled by societies at the local-to-regional level using conventional engineering technologies and government warning and notification systems.

• Similarly, the effects of extreme heat in Ahmedabad, India, and in the United States are being controlled with currently available engineering and social organization rather than distant global greenhouse-gas emission reductions.
• The United States took a somewhat higher-energy, more technological approach—the wider spread of HVAC technology—while Ahmedabad relied more on passive environmental cooling systems and institutional changes such as public heat notifications and response systems.
• The two distinct approaches show the broad applicability of adaptation in managing climate risks.

For the Full report click HERE.