The Problem

Climate change refers to the gradual change of the earth’s climate as a result of multiple factors; however, this piece will mainly be about anthropogenic climate change, which is the changing of the earth’s climate as a result of human activity. This activity could be burning fossil fuels in combustion engines or burning wood.

There are lots of different forecasts on climate change, all of which have different outcomes, but all point one way. Temperatures are going up, and if action is not taken soon, they will continue to rise. Current forecasts put the global temperature increase anywhere between 2.6 and 4 °C by 2100. (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, 2024), (Hodgson, 2022)

The effects of climate change on the world will be drastic, with more acidic oceans because they are carbon sinks and absorb CO2. A reduction in snow and ice cover will cause sea levels to rise, putting more areas of the world at risk of flooding. Precipitation patterns will also change, with the global precipitation average predicted to increase by 7% for every degree of warming. (UCAR Center for Science Education, 2024) The main causes of rising emissions are the growing human population and the “Western” carbon-rich lifestyles that other countries look towards. This lifestyle involves burning coal, oil, and gas, cutting down forests to use for either houses or agriculture, using fertilisers containing nitrogen to feed the population, and increasing livestock numbers.

Solutions

We know that the effects of climate change will be around us for centuries to come, and changing our lifestyles will reduce the severity of the effects. However, it will be important for humanity to be able to adapt to the new challenges we will face.

Adaptation is “the process of changing to suit different conditions” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2024). Being able to do this will be crucial to helping humanity continue to thrive in a changing climate.

A good way of seeing the possible ways of tackling climate change is through the adaptation spectrum, which is a diagram showing how resilience, transition, and transformation are interconnected with one another. An example of this can be seen in Figure 1, showing that as you work up the model, the practices you must put in place get harder and harder to implement but will help the greater good more. As public transport is anywhere from 1.7 to 4.3 times less polluting than passenger cars, (European Environment Agency, 2023)

Figure 1: The Adaptation Spectrum for transport for an individual.

So, adaptations to how we live and go about our day-to-day lives will help us deal with the effects of climate change. However, how many changes need to be made for this to happen, and how quickly should these changes be implemented? Should they be transformative changes that bring radical change or more gradual changes that will slowly move us in the right direction? There is no set answer as to the best route to follow, and each path has positives and negatives.

Transformative changes will directly address the issue and aim to mitigate its effects as quickly as possible. However, this path requires lots of capital investment to make all of that happen. Furthermore, these radical changes may lead to the displacement of large numbers of people to make room for critical infrastructure such as solar panel arrays and nature reserves. If the country trying to transition itself is a country like China with an authoritarian regime, then transformative change is much easier to implement as the people do as they are told. A prime example of this is the Three Gorges Dam, which is the largest power station in the world. When it was constructed, over 1.3 million people were displaced as the government forced them to move. (Sukhan Jackson, 2000)

The positives and negatives

Resistance:

Pros: Resistance is “changing the environment and resisting climate change through building better defences to protect the human way of life.” (Cooper, 2014) The advantage of resistance to climate change is that the investments made by either governments or organisations are visible; this could be a flood wall or raised building to reduce damage from flooding. (Matyas, 2014)

Cons: Changes like floodwalls are expensive ways to resist the effects of climate change, and a collapse in resistance projects could be devastating, such as in 2005 when around 50 locations, or 169 of the 284 miles, of the New Orleans “Hurricane Protection System” failed during Hurricane Katrina, leading to one of the most expensive natural disasters of all time at $125 billion. (Christine F. Andersen, 2007) (Louisiana State University, 2024) Furthermore, structures like flood walls are harder to fit seamlessly into the world than natural flood barriers like vegetation.

Incremental Adjustments:

Pros: The steady changes that take place allow for changes to take place without causing major systematic changes in the community, allowing it to continue to operate. Furthermore, it also allows flexibility and can open the scope for experimentation. (Matyas, 2014)

Cons: Incremental adjustments take time to implement, and due to their desire to stay the same way, they are vulnerable to problems. For example, the lack of public support for a scheme may diminish as time goes on, as may the political party in charge during this time, which could further hamper the project.

Transformative 

Pros: Transformative is defined as a change that “is a deep fundamental change in a system’s form, function, or processes. (Climate Investment Fund, 2021) These reforms go beyond the original goal, whatever that may be, and “transform” parts of the world.

Cons: Transformative methods can bring about extreme secondary costs. For example, the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme showed a £23.7 million funding gap, leading to part of the scheme not getting recommended for approval. (Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs, 2023)

Examples of Resilience in Climate Change

Lakeside Garden Singapore: The lakeside garden in Singapore was built to increase green space in the city region while also regenerating the mangrove forests on the coast. The mangrove forests protect the inland area from storm surges, tsunamis, and other natural disasters, all the while increasing carbon capture in the area. (Mark Spalding, 2012)

Tokyo Storm Drains: Japan has been trying to reduce the effects of natural disasters in its largest city, Tokyo, by implementing river management techniques and utilising underground stormwater storage pipes to reduce the volume of water in the rivers around the city. (Yoshihiro Shibuo, 2021)

Climate Infrastructure: 88% of the total cost of adapting to climate change is expected to emanate from making infrastructure resilient to various climate change-related disasters such as hurricanes and extreme temperatures.

Different examples of adaptation

The Adaptation Landscape models of adaptation are a way of plotting different methods of tackling climate change against the “depth of change” and “scope of change,” two very important measurements in determining the size and effectiveness of an adaptation. 

Figure 2: An adaptation Landscape Model with various climate change adaptation examples on it.

1. Tokyo Storm Drains
2. Thames Barrier
3. Leeds Electric Buses
4. Early warning systems
5. Lakeside Garden, Singapore
6. The UK Government ban on new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.
7. UN Environmental Programme
8. The International Institute for Sustainable Development
9. Kyoto Protocol
10. Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme
11. Retrofitting buildings in London to reduce heating costs
12. 50 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity in the UK by 2030.
13. Reaching 100% caron pollution-free electricity in the US by 2035
14. Incredible Edible Project
15. Increasing the amount I recycle

There are multiple ways of adapting to climate change that vary in scale and ease of implementation in society. However, all come with their own positives and negatives. Is the best way to adapt to climate change a “top-down scientific approach” or a “bottom-up regional approach,” as mentioned by Makoto Tamura? (Tetsuji Ito, 2022)

• Global governance by organisations such as the United Nations is one of the most well-known climate agreements that have been brought into the public eye. The Paris Climate Agreement was “adopted by 196 parties” in 2016, whose goal was “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels” (United Nations, 2020). On the face of this, the plan looked promising in terms of bringing about radical change to help the climate.
• Grass Root Initiatives are localised plans that bring about change in smaller communities, such as a local village or district of a city. An example of this is the Incredible Edible project in Todmorden, which brought the community together to grow local fruit and vegetables. This means a larger portion of the town’s food has a much lower carbon footprint than that in other towns and cities. (Adrian Morley, 2017)
• Meso-level solutions are those that are made at the city level by nongovernmental organisations. Examples include reducing the price of public transport, reducing time in cars, and reducing meat in people’s diets.

Some examples include:

Early warning systems are a very cost-effective way of reducing the damage caused by any natural disaster. A report by the United Nations Environmental Programme said that “giving just 24 hours’ notice of an impending hazardous event could reduce damage by 30 per cent.” The report went on later to say that an investment of only $800 million in multi-hazard early warning systems in developing countries could save them $3 to $16 billion annually. (United Nations Environmental Programme, 2024) These systems are cheap to implement and can help not only save structural damage by allowing people to prepare their homes and businesses but also save lives as well.

The Thames Barrier in London is the city’s effort to reduce the chance of flooding in 125 square kilometres of London’s Central Business District. The barrier stretches the width of the river Thames (520 m) and costs about £1.6 billion in today’s money.

Evaluation

I believe that for the United Kingdom, the best way to tackle climate change is to promote meso-level solutions and grassroots initiatives. I came to this conclusion for several reasons. Though global-level strategies led by organisations such as the United Nations cause major changes that would hopefully put the planet on track to reaching a desired temperature increase by a set date, the costs of such actions would put many countries in a bad situation, especially considering the world’s economic situation in recent years.

Recent plans released by the government of the United Kingdom have changed their long-term climate targets to reach net zero, showcasing that plans agreed by global bodies and those that have been written into law can be changed and altered. (Horton, 2023) This is one of the reasons I believe smaller-scale actions, such as grassroots initiatives, are best to help adapt our lives to climate change.

For adaptation to be successful around the world, it would be beneficial for countries and organisations to share information and research that contributes to the overall goal of minimising the damage caused by a changing climate. (Tetsuji Ito, 2022) Also, adaptations to climate change are much more likely to occur in high-income countries than in lower-income countries, where they simply don’t have the capital to build the adaptations or to develop them. (Berrang-Ford, 2011)

References

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