Humanity will find ways to adapt to climate

change
By The Economist, adapted by Newsela staff on 03.01.20
Word Count 1,016
Level 1250L

Image 1. A movable system, the Thames Barrier on the Thames River in London, England, was made to stop the surrounding areas from
being flooded because of high water levels. Photo: Andy Roberts/Wikimedia Commons

Editor's Note: The opinions in this essay are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent
the views of Newsela or its editors. Political language, word choice and position belong to the
author alone.

Last year, Hurricane Dorian tore through the Bahamas, leaving devastation in its wake. In the
aftermath of such destructive storms, those affected must make important decisions. Should they
invest in cellar pumps and better drainage, rebuild with stronger design and materials, or should
they just move? Thanks to climate change, weather will certainly get worse in the future, bringing
higher seas, fiercer storms and more rain. People who can afford to change their lifestyles will do
so, and adaptation is essential to reduce the human and economic costs of the changing climate.
However, spending on adaptation may further complicate the complex politics surrounding the
issue. Global warming is causing multiple natural disasters.

Collective-Action Problem
Efforts to slow global warming must overcome difficult political obstacles. The benefits to reduced
warming take decades and centuries to pay off, whereas the cost of cutting emissions must be paid
up front by taxpayers who cannot expect to see much return in their lifetimes. Mitigation, which
refers to the efforts to curb emissions, is subject to a serious collective-action problem. Impact on
the climate is determined much more by what everyone else does than by what you do. Each actor
has an incentive to free-ride on the sacrifices of others. Cutting emissions requires every large
country saddling voters with expense and inconvenience that will mostly help people elsewhere, or
not yet born. Humans are causing global warming and global warming is getting worse

Adaptation, by contrast, can pay off even when a person acts alone, out of pure self-interest.
Homeowners invest in energy-efficient thermostats or flood defenses in order to benefit from
lower utility bills or storm damage, and there are no political problems to untangle. Government
actions are only slightly more complicated because they require political agreement to spend
public money on environmental projects. However, the benefits will mostly be felt in the place
where the funds are raised. At most a few governments and agencies will be required to co-
operate, rather than tens or hundreds.

Responding To Climate Change Through Adaptation

All this means that adaptation is likely to play a large role in humanity's response to climate
change. Indeed, the price of agricultural land already accounts for the expected impact of climate
change. Consumers already react to extreme weather events, as evidenced by the fact that
purchases of air-conditioners rise after heat waves. Some individuals may adapt by choosing to
take a job in a place less prone to extreme weather. Some cities are making more obvious
adaptations, such as New York City's plan to construct a series of raised flood-control berms
around the southern end of Manhattan. People are trying their best to adapt to global warming

As demand rises for ways to ease the pain of climate change, supply will respond. A growing
market for goods prompts producers to innovate, and the same logic applies to adaptation.
Companies that are taking serious steps to be environmentally friendly hope to create a market or
are betting that governments will eventually do the job for them by getting serious about
emissions. The market for better means of coping with climate change is already growing daily.

That's a good thing, because experts predict that the effects of climate change will be much more
serious if people are unable to adapt. A study published last year estimated that floods will reduce
global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2200 by 4.5 percent. Global GDP is basically the combined
amount of money from all the goods produced and sold, including everyones's salaries, from all
the countries in the world in a year.

Making Infrastructure More Resilient

However, if the effects of adaptive investments and migration are considered, the loss drops to just
0.11 percent. The Global Commission on Adaptation is a group of 20 developed and still-
developing countries. The commission released a new report that identifies $1.8 trillion in possible
adaptation investments. The largest one is spending on making infrastructure (roads,
ports, electricity, sanitation, sewer and communications systems) more resilient to climate change.
Other investments include improving irrigation of farmland in dry areas and protecting water
resources. If these investments are made between 2020 and 2030, they will yield estimated net
benefits of $7.1 trillion.
Still, the march to adaptation is not without its drawbacks. Just as better safety features in cars
may make for less careful drivers, investments in adaptation that blunt the effects of climate
change could reduce the desire to spend on mitigation. Laws to reduce carbon emissions will
impose significant cost and inconvenience on nearly everyone. People will likely resent these laws
unless they can see the results in the not-too-distant future. Investments in adaptation that reduce
the likelihood or severity of looming dangers undercut the case for accepting the hardship of
decarbonization. The longer governments fail to act to curb warming, the more people and firms
will spend to safeguard themselves. This will mean they are less troubled by governments' failures
to decarbonize.Global warming is causing destruction which causes panic and a lot of money being spent by the
government to repair the destruction.
Catastrophic Scenarios

However, even if some people can adapt to a warmer world, it is still a big problem. If unchecked,
global warming could result in catastrophic scenarios that outstrip any capacity to adapt.
Moreover, the ability to adapt varies dramatically from place to place. Rich people in North
America and mainland Europe, both of which have relatively temperate climates, have money to
spend on adaptation. They can move from the worst-hit spots with relative ease. Poor people have
little spare cash, mostly live in hotter places and face far more obstacles when they try to migrate.
Indeed, some research suggests they may even migrate less when temperatures rise, because
hotter, drier conditions harm agricultural yields, thus depriving them of the resources they would
need to move.

Part of the attraction of mitigation as a primary response is that the steps rich countries take to
help themselves also help poorer ones. These poorer nations are both less responsible for global
warming and more vulnerable to its effects. Residents of advanced economies must recognize that
spending to shield themselves increases their obligations to others.

Bad scenarios of global warming is that rich people might get more resources to live comfortably while the
poor might have to live in areas with less resources due to their income.