Learning to live with climate change vs trying to fix it

The reduction of emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to prevent the planet from warming to more extreme temperatures is called climate change mitigation.

The sad fact about climate change is that the carbon dioxide that we’ve placed into the atmosphere will stay there for hundreds of years. Even if we stopped all such pollution immediately, we’d still be left with the damage we’ve already caused. And of course, stopping all greenhouse gas pollution right away isn’t at all possible anyway. Yet we can’t give up; we still have to try. Zero net emissions still has to be our long-term goal. Picture a bathtub filled with water so much that it’s beginning to overflow. The problem is that water is still being added to the tub, even though it’s already full. If we reduce the inflow, it will slow the amount that’s spilling onto the floor, but it won’t stop it. The only solution is to shut the water supply off completely. But if we don’t at least begin to reduce emissions now, the earth’s warming will be that much worse. As we slow and hopefully stop greenhouse gas emissions, we will also need to develop new technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere. There have been some promising developments on this front, but the breakthrough needs to be in the area of scalability.

Thus climate change is a long-term problem without an easy fix. It’s exacerbated by some people and institutions who are resistant to change, often citing economic justification. Avoidance of short-term pain is understandable, but much of the resistance is fostered and sponsored by those with a vested interest in the status quo: those who profit greatly from the burning of fossil fuel.

Climate change adaptation means altering our behavior, systems, and sometimes ways of life to protect our families, our economies, and the environment in which we live from the impacts of climate change.

Now that climate change is finally accepted as fact, and it’s sad that this has taken so long, we will have to adapt or perish. Every part of the globe will have to take measures to minimize the effects, and it will take time, effort, and money. Lots of money.