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| Adaptation | 44% | 32 votes | Total: 72 votes | |
| Mitigation | 56% | 40 votes |
Adaptation
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Add to FavoritesYes! We should be preparing adaptation measures for this climate change that IS taking place, and has been scientifically proven with geological, sattelite, recorded data and the like. It is a fact that we are experiencing a much warmer climate, or is it that South Australia and Victoria in Australia are merely having a warm spell? It is predicted by having used the software available to scientists, that there will be more extreme weather events, as is being experienced at this very minute, from the extreme cold of Europe, to the worst floods of North Queensland, to the extreme heat waves of the Southern half of Australia.
To deny this is happening is ludicrous! The fact is, the enormous amount of CO2 in the atmosphere post the Industrial Age, has increased our temperatures, caused sea levels to rise and melt the iceburgs. It is impossible not to have a reaction on Earth to this pollution which we made. Humans may have adapted to former episodes, but none has come so quickly, and I for one, am not able to cope near as much as I did 40years ago. It is necessary to adapt our electrical systems to cope with the wet seasons which have caused grief to many of us who live in the tropics. It is necessary to adapt transport to cope with hot and wet conditions, ensuring those travelling have always the option for fresh air when foolish air-conditioners fail. It is necessary to reduce the need for road transport and adapt rail services to sustain operations during wet seasons, saving millions of dollars in lost wages, inability to transport food and emergency services to affected areas. Those otherwise stranded would not be so if there were more efficient road systems in place that don't wash out every time it rains.
The regions that experience very cold winters and very hot summers, need to adapt their homes to suit both extremes, and ensure they have plenty of water storage, do not grow large trees close to their properties, build out of durable materials with skylighting to reduce the use of electricity and heating. Having a row of louvers closer to the floor is valuable in hot areas to enable the air to flow to the roof. Cieling fans are a waste of time, as only spinn hot air as hot air rises.
We need to change our fascination with having a waterfront block. There are so many homes and resorts teetering on very unstable ground right now since pounding waves and strong winds have eroded foreshores in many coastal towns and islands. Teach our children to adapt to the heat they are inheriting, by NOT putting them in air-conditioned buildings, but give them a spray bottle of water and let nature cool them. Molly-coddling the young will do them more harm in the long run, as they will be incapable of adapting as temperatures rise.
It is fool-hardy and plain dangerous to ignore the warnings, and whether it is the CO2, Methane, Sulphurs or whatever, along with the earthquakes from shifting plates that is causing the temperature rise and melting burgs, we as humans, and the animals of the Earth, need to take adaptive measures and reduce the variables as much as possible to be responsible towards our offspring. It is noted that those who claim nothing to fear, are very near their end of life on the planet, so what do they care? Get real indeed! Adapt to the changes or suffer. IPCC scientists are voluntary highly qualified scientists who give many months each year to researching data from all levels, therefore they are NOT paid for an outcome, unlike most others.
Learn more about this author, Barbara Gibbs.
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Mitigation
This is issue is not so much about what we should do as what we can do. There are many simple things that we can do every day to reduce CO2 emissions and more advanced methods are in use with more in development. We can never fully eliminate our emissions but we can greatly reduce them. By contrast, adaptation is simply not possible. The impacts of climate change are insurmountable by mere human efforts.
In recent years we have experienced more intense hurricanes, extreme drought, and massive floods. While we can be more prepared for these events, there is no true way to adapt to the devastating effects of a hurricane like Katrina or to protect farmland from floods such as the Midwest has experienced this summer. Atlanta, GA has been suffering from drought for over a year, seeing their main water source, Lake Lanier continuously drop in water level. Water use can be restricted but it is still one of the main ingredients of life. We can not do with out it.
Drought is a major issue across the globe. Once fertile land in Africa and Asia is turning to desert. Poor African nations who contribute little to climate change will be the hardest hit as it progresses. Famine has been ever present in countries like Ethiopia and Somolia but as farm land disappears it will reach new heights. The absence of arable land will exacerbate the problem of world hunger; as this is already a huge problem we can not hope to "adapt" to worsening conditions.
As the glaciers melt, sea levels will rise and land will vanish beneath the waves. We can, of course, learn to live without parts of Florida and move beach front properties inland a bit. But the millions of people world wide who live along the coasts will be displaced and put added pressure on other locations whose resources may also be depleted. Rising sea levels are also credited with strengthening tsunamis such as the one that hit Indonesia is 2005.
The heat waves that accompany climate change are having both direct and indirect effects on mankind. Hundreds of Americans die each year during heat waves; in 2003, 35,000 Europeans died during a record setting hot spell. And how are we to solve this problem? With water and air conditioning? Drinkable water is becoming ever more scarce and running the AC only exacerbate the problem as it pumps greenhouse gases into the air. An indirect effect of the heat is a reduction in the snow pack in Northwestern states. Less snow falls because it isn't cold enough and what does accumulate is melting earlier in the spring. The water from the snow pack is essential for replenishing the rivers and ground water that supply water to the people.
The fact is that adaptation is just not an option. We can not change our needs for water for both hydration and agriculture. We can not change our need for food and arable land to grow it on. We can not change our body's reaction to extreme heat. We can not change the effects of extreme weather. What we can change are our actions - the amount of energy we consume and the sources from which we get that energy. And so it is what we must change.
Learn more about this author, Sheila Westfall.
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