Adaptation Time
As the Climate Summit at the National Academy of Sciences progresses today, it is increasingly clear that a broad swath of mainstream climate scientists agree: not only are humans unequivocally warming the planet, serious impacts are inevitable. It is time to start preparing adaptation plans. (A topic this blog has addressed before.)
The preoccupation with adaptation among scientists here is sobering. Politicians may debate climate impact and mitigation proposals, but the scientists have moved on. We need legislation, but we must also prepare for more frequent and intense storms, rising sea levels, species relocation and disappearance, drought, and flooding (perhaps repeatedly of the Red River?).
I won't recapitulate what the scientists said today. If you want a taste, just look up the papers done by today's presenters including Susan Solomon of NOAA, Stephen Schneider of Stanford University, and Henry Jacoby of MIT.
Remember that scientists tend to understate conclusions and depolarize language. Nowhere are these tendencies more evident than in the technical presentations here that one after the other showed -- to use the scientists' word -- just how "robust" their conclusions are.
A lawyer, a politician, or a citizen might be tempted to read between the lines today and substitute words "alarming" or "overwhelming."
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