Why Local Wins: Adaptation Action

This post is part of my series on the local actions needed to take on climate change.  Go here to read the introduction.


Adapting to a changing climate is something that every one of us will have to get used to in the coming years.  The locked-in changes that are coming aren't going to be easy to deal with, but if we all work together and stop pretending it doesn't even exist, we can come out the other side with a more healthy, sustainable, and just society.


Change isn't easy.  The climate is changing in ways we have never experienced.  The changes we need to make in response to our climate are going to require cooperation between all aspects of society.  Because it is a necessary change, we should act now instead of reacting later.  We need to truly come together - churches, businesses, schools, and government working collaboratively.  This is the only way that real society-wide change can occur.  Top-down orders from government aren't readily accepted by a significant portion of society, resulting in resentment and rejections, but if all affected factions are included in the decision-making process, the chance of successful change grows proportionately to the level of input they're afforded.  Creating a sense of ownership and investment in one's society fosters a connection to its success.  


The focus of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and most Western governments has been on big picture stuff, like the concentration of carbon dioxide in the environment and what the average effects will be throughout the world.  While very important, this focus has abstracted the problem to the point that most people are unaware of how their individual lives and communities will be affected by the coming changes.  Some areas will see more rain, or more droughts, or those by the ocean will need to prepare for rising sea levels, and on and on. The general trend of rising temperatures will have vastly different effects in each locality.  The responsibility to prepare each community will ultimately fall to that community.  Infrastructure decisions are made at the state, county, and city levels, not by international treaties.  For example, deciding the location and height to build a levee in response to projected increases in flood frequency and size is going to depend on that local government getting the most accurate information from climate science.  One encouraging trend is the development of local projection models, as discussed in my previous blog post here, that will allow communities to plan more specifically for their unique challenges ahead.   



If we can get communities involved, city by city, in their own plans for adaptation and reducing greenhouse gases, we will take a big step toward a sustainable future.  Eighty percent of the US population lives in cities.  That means that 80% of the country could enact comprehensive climate policy without having to wait on national politics to finally get a comprehensive plan in place.  Obviously, we need a national plan as soon as possible in order to send a signal to the rest of the world that we will take responsibility and act, but we have waited for this for too long.  We need to act now, wherever we can, and to me that power currently lies at the level of the city.


Grassroots campaigns in each voting district can make this happen - elect politicians who believe in a sustainable future, and hold them accountable to doing just that.

Why Local Wins: An Introduction

Since the creation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, we have witnessed international efforts to change the trajectory of our climate crisis.  The process and the results have been frustrating, disappointing, and ineffective.  We have seen large-scale international negotiating efforts fail to bring about a comprehensive international climate change mitigation and adaptation plan.  I feel that continuing these efforts is important, but is beginning to look futile as the years of inaction pile up.

Twenty years of negotiations has led to very little actual change - the Kyoto Protocol has been largely ineffective in actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and in several months that treaty will expire, with nothing to replace it as of now.  Twenty years' worth of relative inaction in climate-change-land has had devastating consequences for the trajectory of our future.  The effects of global warming are now locked in for the next 50 years, as Mark Hertsgaard discusses in HOT: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth.  Even if we cut our worldwide carbon emissions to zero as of today (obviously impossible), the amount of greenhouse gas already in the atmosphere will continue to wreak havoc on the climate system.  In order to lower the parts per million to below the 350ppm threshold for a livable world, major changes need to happen NOW.  So, what do we, the concerned public, do when our countries' leaders won't agree on a path forward?

I will be doing a series of posts on what we must do at the local level to start a movement that will:
- lower carbon emissions now, instead of waiting for an international treaty while the problem gets worse
- prepare our communities for the locked-in climate changes to come
- make our leaders unable to ignore climate change and finally act meaningfully on national and international levels

How will climate change look from your front porch?

The state of California is once again leading the way as an innovative, visionary force for developing solutions to complex societal issues.  Last week, the California Energy Commission launched a very exciting project called Cal-Adapt.  Its purpose is to "synthesize existing California climate change scenarios and climate impact research and to encourage its use in a way that is beneficial for local decision-makers."  More simply, it's a place for the public to see how climate change will affect their local area, which will help them plan for place-specific adaptation.

A collaboration between UC-Berkeley, Google, California Natural Resources Agency, and others, the website brings together the most current climate change research available so that a user can visualize how their local sea level, temperature, wildlife, precipitation, etc, will be affected by a changing climate.  The user is also able to compare data from the past thirty years with current and projected scenario measurements, making for powerful side-by-side analysis.  The projections are given in ranges for high-emissions and low-emissions futures, which could prove to be a powerful motivator for strong emissions reductions when people see how those two pathways lead to two very different outcomes for their hometowns.

Climate change has proven to be a difficult issue for which to elicit strong action from the public, in part because with a global problem, global averages are the main data presented to the public.  When given averages of possible temperature, precipitation, or sea level change on a global scale, it can be hard for the projections to resonate with people on a personal level.  This site has the potential to show people how their individual lives will be affected and why they need to care about climate change.  Hopefully, this will translate to faster and stronger actions toward fighting climate change.

Now we just need to get this started in the other 49 states and every other country...