Está en la página 1de 2

Dealing with climate change: Mitigation and adaptation

Debate the motion that 'this house believe that mitigation is the only way to manage climate change'. Outline: Mitigation Reducing the output of GHGs and increasing the size of GHG sinks (e.g. Rainforest) Examples of mitigation: o Setting targets to reduce CO2 emissions o Switching to renewable energy resources o Capturing carbon emissions from power stations and storing them in spent oil wells Adaptation Changing our lifestyles to cope with a new environment rather than trying to stop climate change Examples of adaptation: o Managed retreat of coastlines vulnerable to rising sea level o Developing drought-resistant crops (GM) o Enlarging existing conservation areas to allow for shifting habitat zones Human and natural systems may differ in their ability to respond to mitigation and adaptation strategies Human Systems For human systems such as the economy, mitigation will involve an upfront cost in reducing GHG emissions. However, adaptation may allow the cost to be spread over a longer time period Natural Systems For natural systems, mitigation could limit damage but adaption strategies could condemn natural environments that cannot adapt to the shift in climate This would result in species loss and reduced biodiversity as ecosystems become increasingly threatened Adaptive Capacity to cope Some countries are better able to implement mitigation and adaptation strategies than others Wealthier countries have the capital and resources to adapt to climate change But poorer countries in the developing world lack this adaptive capacity to cope as they already have to overcome a number of non-climatic stresses, some of which need to be dealt with more urgently, such as: o Poverty o Poor infrastructure o Limited education and skills o Limited or unequal access to resources

o o o o

Conflict and Civil War Food Shortages Water Stress Disease

Both mitigation and adaptation are significant in their own ways. Mitigation has the ability to reduce the effect of a disaster, and the loss of life and prosperty, as well as preventing a disaster. However, adaptation allows us to do something about global warming now. Global warming is happening anyways and having many impacts such as rise in sea-levels, temperatures, and melting of ice, so the only advantage mitigation will have on this is help delay the process to make it slower, and attempting to reduce the causes of it in the long run. However, this is a waste of money, because global warming will happen anyways. So why not take action from now, which will benefit us now rather than in a few years? Mitigation projects spend billion of dollars on Mitigation and it will be a really slow process as they're predicted to be achieved by 2040, which is too late because within the next 29 years, we'll be facing more consequences, and how will we be coping with them when all our investments are going towards mitigation? For human systems such as the economy, mitigation will involve an upfront cost in reducing greenhouse gases emissions. However, adaptation may allow the cost to be spread over a longer time period. This may be more convenient for developing countries, as they'll be able to cope more from spreading the costs rather than spending all in one go. Investments will be too high for them, and become unbearable. Governments within those poor nations will have to borrow money and therefore get into more debt which would have negative effects on the population. Although, the disadvantage with developing countries is that before they can start adapting, they need to overcome other stresses such as poverty, poor infrastructure, etc as adaptation involves using technology which is likely to be too costly for them. But for the developed countries, as they have the resources and capital they need, they can carry out whichever they wanted, mitigation or adaptation. Although, adaptation is not all good. Emissions have to be reduced immediately if the world is to avoid tipping point, and enivornmentalists believe that adaptation policies waste time when the world should focus on reducing emissions, especially in developing countries like China and India. Mitigation can have simplistic methods, such as switching to energy efficient products, and using reneweable enegy, reculcing and using public transports etc. There has also been projects such as the Kyoto Protocol where countries who signed the treaty had to reduce their greenhouse emissions by 8% compared with the 1990 levels. Other projects also include the ETS Emission Trading System in Europe where businesses are being encouraged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by going green. Overall to make it ideal for everyone, as well as the environment. Impletmenting a bit of both, mitgation and adaptation are needed together to use each of their methods in order to cope with climate change, as well as reducing it.

También podría gustarte