Climate Change 101 (Adaptation vs. Mitigation)

There are two basic schools of thoughts with regards to strategies in combating climate change: adaptation and mitigation. I am going to be borrowing what is in my view a phenomenal description of adaptation and mitigation with a real life event by The Climate Reality Project. The IPCC describes adaptation as an adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities (IPCC, 2001a). In effect, adaptation is simply doing what we can to make the impacts of climate change less profound on us. Now, back to the real life example, assuming you were sailing and all of a sudden your boat starts to sink, two basic approaches could be taken. The first I would guess is to grab a bucket and and pour out the water as it gushes into your boat. That is adaptation. You are not actually fixing the source of the problem (probably a leakage), but you are taking steps to stay alive thus afloat by strategically preventing more water from taking over your boat.

On the other hand, mitigation is more geared toward attempting to curb the source of a problem. The UNEP describes mitigation as efforts to reduce or prevent emission of greenhouse gases. Back to our boat shall we? Now the second approach to staying afloat is to tackle the source of the leak by probably gluing any hole (if that is feasible enough).

Below are a few Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies

ADAPTATION

• Building sea defense systems

• Cultivation of drought tolerant crops such as rice and maize

• Afforestation (trees are natural carbon sinks)

MITIGATION

• Alternate energy production (other than fossil fuels)

• Discouraging combustion on large or small scales (eg. burning of refuse)

• Embracing electric vehicles

Keywords explained

IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)

UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme)

Learn More

• https://www.ipcc.ch/

• https://www.unep.org/

• https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/climate-adaptation-vs-mitigation-why-does-it-matter