Climate Adaptation

 

In the flow of time there are ups and downs for every species of plants and animals. When times are good for some, they flourish. When times are bad for others, they decline. It is easy to point to the giants of the earth, the great, scaly monsters known as Dinosaurs, who once ruled every corner of the world. And now, with the discovery of massive celestial impact craters, it is easy to imagine their demise, as the sky darkened and the many plants that drove the growth of these creatures wilted and died. Then came the rise of mammals as the Earth reached a new ecological equilibrium. I used to live on Earth in this current age of history, back when it was habitable. There were no super highways, no mass produced housing tracts, no green smog layers pressing down from above. Back then we went to the woods to climb mountains, not flee from them with fires licking our heels. Yeah, hurricanes came and went, but only one big one every few years, not every month. I can almost see the brontos

Climate is not just changing. It has changed. We are already seeing the affects of rising green house gas emissions every day in every part of the world. Life changing events are occurring in weather, pollution, rising sea level, scorched earth and crop failures. Carbon reduction strategies meant to reverse global warming are being implemented, but it is clear that the recovery will take time. Meanwhile, the detrimental changes already occurring require that we develop adaptation strategies to deal with the increasing impacts climate change is having on our lives and livelihoods. Source: from OECD/IFPRI (2014). Modeling Adaptation to Climate Change in Agriculture