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This past week has provided a really uncomfortable snapshot of what climate impacts, resilience, and adaptation actually means. We've seen...
Bridges closing because of extreme heat: https://twitter.com/LBRUT/status/1293938346851536897
Climate impacts implicated in a fatal accident. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/aug/13/scottish-minister-warns-of-climate-challenge-after-stonehaven-crash
Fears London's care homes are over-heating. https://www.businessgreen.com/news-analysis/4018897/overheating-audit-mayor-london-crafting-extreme-heat-adaptation-plans
Trillions of dollars of infrastructure are not fit for purpose in a 1.5C warmed world, let alone a 2C or 3C+ world. But that's not even the scary part...
Human infrastructure can be adapted (at eye-watering cost), but natural systems and food systems will find it much,much harder to adapt. This week saw confirmation UK potato crops are down 40% the past two years. https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4018896/mccain-invests-gbp25m-bolstering-potato-farmers-climate-resilience
And then there's this: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/13/marine-food-webs-could-be-radically-altered-by-heating-of-oceans-scientists-warn
And then there's migration. Migration is caused by multiple complex and inter-related factors. But there is literally no warming scenario where shifting drought, flood, and agricultural patterns do not lead to increased migration and all the challenges that go with it.
All of this was both predictable and predicted. The impacts are going to worsen over the coming decades. We know that with overwhelming certainty. And yet the 'let's just adapt' crowd are failing on their own terms. They aren't even advocating effectively for proper resilience.
There is so much cost-effective, low risk, no regrets things that can be done to bolster resilience and slash emissions. And we're still not collectively doing them, even when political and business elites accept fully that they have to be done.
It is long past time to get serious about risk and resilience. But it is also never too late to start properly preparing for the era of climate disruption.
