Climate talk shifts from curbing CO2 to adapting – ‘Many of the other developed countries have gone way ahead of us in preparing for climate change’
First of a two-part package on adapting to climate change. Tomorrow: Snapshots of what cities are doing around the world. By Seth Borenstein, with contributions from Karl A. Ritter in Bonn, Germany, Jennifer Peltz in New York, and Tony Winton in Miami
15 June 2013 WASHINGTON (AP) – Efforts to curb global warming have quietly shifted as greenhouse gases inexorably rise. The conversation is no longer solely about how to save the planet by cutting carbon emissions. It’s becoming more about how to save ourselves from the warming planet’s wild weather. It was Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s announcement last week of an ambitious plan to stave off New York City’s rising seas with flood gates, levees and more that brought this transition into full focus. After years of losing the fight against rising global emissions of heat-trapping gases, governments around the world are emphasizing what a U.N. Foundation scientific report calls “managing the unavoidable.” It’s called adaptation and it’s about as sexy but as necessary as insurance, experts say. It’s also a message that once was taboo among climate activists such as former Vice President Al Gore. In his 1992 book Earth in the Balance, Gore compared talk of adapting to climate change to laziness that would distract from necessary efforts. But in his 2013 book The Future, Gore writes bluntly: “I was wrong.” He talks about how coping with rising seas and temperatures is just as important as trying to prevent global warming by cutting emissions. Like Gore, governmental officials across the globe aren’t saying everyone should just give up on efforts to reduce pollution. They’re saying that as they work on curbing carbon, they also have to deal with a reality that’s already here. In March, President Barack Obama’s science advisers sent him a list of recommendations on climate change. No. 1 on the list: “Focus on national preparedness for climate change.” “Whether you believe climate change is real or not is beside the point,” New York’s Bloomberg said in announcing his $20 billion adaptation plans. “The bottom line is: We can’t run the risk.” On Monday, more than three dozen other municipal officials from across the country will go public with a nationwide effort to make their cities more resilient to natural disasters and the effects of man-made global warming. “It’s an insurance policy, which is investing in the future,” Mayor Kevin Johnson of Sacramento, California, who is chairing the mayors’ efforts, said in an interview Friday. “This is public safety. It’s the long-term hazards that could impact a community.” Discussions about global warming are happening more often in mayors’ offices than in Congress. The Obama administration and local governments are coming up with thousands of eye-glazing pages of climate change adaptation plans and talking about zoning, elevation, water system infrastructure, and most of all, risk. “They can sit up there and not make any policies or changes, but we know we have to,” Broward County, Fla., Mayor Kristin Jacobs said. “We know that we’re going to be that first line of defense.” University of Michigan professor Rosina Bierbaum is a presidential science adviser who headed the adaptation section of the administration’s new National Climate Assessment. “It’s quite striking how much is going on at the municipal level,” Bierbaum said. “Communities have to operate in real time. Everybody is struggling with a climate that is no longer the climate of the past.” Still, Bierbaum said, “Many of the other developed countries have gone way ahead of us in preparing for climate change. In many ways, the U.S. may be playing catch-up.” Hurricanes, smaller storms and floods have been a harsh teacher for South Florida, Jacobs said. “Each time you get walloped, you stop and scratch your head … and learn from it and make change,” she said. “It helps if you’ve been walloped once or twice. I think it’s easier to take action when everybody sees” the effect of climate change and are willing to talk about being prepared. […] Online:
- Federal government’s National Climate Assessment chapter on adaptation
- The national mayors’ efforts to promote adaptation
- Georgetown University’s Climate Center primer on adaptation
[more]
