Today I attended a forum where experts from the US and Norway explained that even if all the promises made so far are kept (which is extremely unlikely, particularly considering the situation in the US) we are projected to be at 550 ppm CO2 by 2100. They also explained that even if we were to cut emissions to zero this instant global temperature and sea level would continue to rise. They all had the same thing to say: no matter how well negotiation go towards mitigation strategies, adaptation strategies to deal with climate change will be crucial.
So where did I go next?
I went to a presentation by Ms. Nisha Krishnan on the brand new Global Adaptation Atlas, a site designed by Resources for the Future to help organizations and individuals establish priorities for adaptation action. Well, at least I thought it was fitting to go from a session emphasizing the need for adaptive strategies to one advising on how to implement them. Adaptation is not only going to be very important for people trying to cope with the effects of climate change, it’s going to be very expensive. If we are going to be contributing money to this cause we want to be sure it’s well spent. Mitigation strategies are effective globally, they can be established anywhere, but adaptation strategies have to be specialized for the region, and can sometimes work at cross purposes. The group has worked to amass as much data as possible on existing adaptation programs and possible threats that require adaptation strategies. They them partnered with ESRI to projected the data on maps that can be customized and searched by anyone. So far they have ~400 layers. The theme of the day seemed to be the need for better measurement techniques, and you will see that much of the information is not very precise as to location, but the way the website is set up people will be able to submit and verify data as new techniques become available.
I recommend checking out the site:
http://www.adaptationatlas.org/
It’s very user friendly. If you can navigate Google Earth you will be able to get started. One of their goals is to make it accessible to people in developing nations that may not have extensive technological expertise. You can turn on and off layers for different factors like people vulnerable to 1 m rise in sea level, land lost to coastal erosion, and even migration due to land loss. Then you can compare those results with those for different scenarios and time frames. I thought it was fun to compare the different projection scenarios, you can see just how much seperates the best case senarios from the worst. All it takes is a few minuites.
1 comment:
This article opened my eyes to an issue I had not considered-apaptation. Glad to know the issue is being addressed.
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