Could climate change call for alternative approaches? Is the sense we are presently planning for a forthcoming unpredictable variation insufficient to sustain the uncertainty, or scale, and complication associated with climate changes?
Humans have been adapting with evolution and all types of suffering for thousands of years. So far our existence would suggest we have pulled through successfully. We survived the woolly mammoth, numerous earthquakes, volcanic eruptions along with acid rain and various ice ages. No doubt human civilization will continue to evolve and survive the test of time. However, we could diminish the level of negative influences by being proactive with planned adaptation. The scientists have warned us of what is to come. So should we not adapt our homes, lifestyle and living accordingly and be prepared as well as try to slow down the greenhouse damage to our planet’s atmosphere.
We should learn from our history and take note of the recent change in precipitations all over the world. 2020 was just the beginning of the phenomenon that is to affect our planet. We need to act now and prepare as climate developments take a hold and start to have a more negative impact affecting us globally. Adjusting our lives, homes, and neighborhoods to withstand the natural forces of our planet. Or should we believe that mitigation will work and rely on our leaders?
Humans have been dealing with climate change, drought, sinking cities and floods for millennia. So why are we not learning from science and focusing our needs on adapting our way of living in society? Like it or not, change in the way we will live is imminent and we need to prepare. Many still consider this topic to be taboo, but adaptation, global change and mitigation need to addressed and soon. Sweden is the leading example of how we should run our countries, but California should be an example of how we build our new structures, especially our homes.
Scientists and the leaders of the world continue to construct implementations to reverse the greenhouse effect damage. Whereas mitigation is important, the damage created by humans is already affecting the weather as it takes a hold and creates catastrophic fallout across the globe. Much of society seems to ignore the warnings the planet is giving, or they hide their heads in the sand. We need to be planning for the future, for these effects are a sample of what is coming.
In 2007 Nature magazine printed an article stating that adaptation to the changing climate by building resilient societies would go far in securing a safe future for humans rather than just cutting gas emissions. We know the importance of needing to reduce our gas emissions and the effects humans are having on the planet. Most of us have known this for a very long time. But while the authorities and scientists have been focusing on this lowering the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. It has obscured the more obvious action. Is it now more important to discuss and look at options on “how do we build safer and more resilient communities” and deal with power structure and other predicted problems. Emergency services, flood routes, food import, our way of farming, water contamination, our vulnerable citizens including the homeless and preparing extra medicine and medical backup for extreme natural disasters. These are just a few basic essentials.
There needs to be larger and more durable drainage put in the areas that are prone to flooding. They have drained flat levels and salt marshes for building or agriculture. These need to be reversed where possible. The marshes are a natural ecosystem for wave breaking and sea floods. The replanting of woodland that would have been a natural top soil protection and drainage is necessary. Surveys need to be completed predicting outcomes of precipitation damage in vulnerable areas and the worst-case scenarios. Other natural protective barriers replaced, such as the small wooded areas and tree clusters on farms and public land, hedges, ditches, banks and walls.
If we truly want to adapt to climate change, then we are talking transferral change. This will really allow society to be resilient. In which case, we need to approach this holistically. We need to work together, especially within our communities. Preparing our individual homes and thinking, ‘I’m alright Jack’ is not helpful. We will work better as a community and accomplish far more in a brief space of time, and it will be more cost-effective too. We need to think about how we can all equally survive this. We cannot afford to be selfish. If we are going to weather resilient our homes, then let us protect the entire estate, village, close, terrace, street, a block of flats, tower block as a community. We will be safer if we work together to share resources and physical labour, help the vulnerable in our neighbourhood.
We will live in a different world and to survive we need to adapt and change the way we perceive reality, by considering how society should be structured from here on in. People will inevitably lose out, especially the vulnerable like those with fewer resources and low socioeconomic status including the elderly, handicapped and mentally ill. These people in the UK will be some of the most vulnerable and after the time it took for the government to help people in crisis over COVID-19 imagine the time, it would take them to deal with a crisis like hurricane Katrina. We should prepare to look after our own and not rely on the emergency services, food delivery, government support or benefit system. Plan is the key plan and prepare to adapt permanently.
Thousands of new homes and vast estates are being built every month in the UK alone, and none of them have any new building regulations to withstand torrential floods and cyclone winds. The sea fronts of large retirement communities need protection from high tides, waves, flooding and the ever-increasing sea level. The walls and boulders we have in place now are not sufficient. Most of us can survive the carnage and changes, but we must adapt and change our way of thinking if we are to avoid catastrophe.
I selected the extract below from a recent report from one country that signed up for the Paris Agreement. The objective of reducing their emissions had not yet been reached. They had started transformation, having considered the concerned effects of the climate change. The below statement is what they are predicting and planning the adaptation around. So it would suggest that nations are already viewing adaptation as a better safe than sorry plan. This is an insurance plan, as it cannot be guaranteed that the world will reach the target needed to prevent global devastation. .
Parties continue to focus on food, nutrition security and food production; terrestrial and wetland ecosystems; human health; freshwater resources; key economic sectors and services; disaster risk management and early warning; human habitats and urban areas; coastal areas and sea level rise; ocean ecosystems; and livelihoods and poverty.https://unfccc.int/news/virtual-climate-
The coastal regions need informing of the consequences of their staying and homes need to have reinforced exterior resilience and extra flood preparation. The council properties need to be reinforced and made resilient to withstand cyclone winds.
Many of the council homes in the coastal areas where built in the 30s and 50s, so it would be far more economical to rebuild new resilient council homes in flood free areas. Building some adapted for the elderly and with wheelchair access and near to communities with hospital facilities rather than a rural GP surgery. It will affect rural areas the most and the families who live in these old cottages and thatched houses will suffer if we do not make them aware and they don’t adapt..
Because of floods, fallen trees, buildings, landslides, bridges down, pile-ups or roads torn up, many of these areas may be impossible to reach. So we cannot rely on the emergency services, especially near the sea.
https://www.nature.com/ wrote an article and this is a paragraph on the figures from the 2016 UN
According to the 2016 United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) finance gap report19, the costs of climate adaptation are likely to be somewhere between US$140 billion to US$300 billion per year by 2030, increasing to US$280 billion to US$500 billion by 2050. This is broadly consistent with figures from the World Bank report20 that the amount of investment to enable countries to meet sustainable development goals — such as universal access to water, sanitation and electricity, food security and protection against floods — may require investment on new infrastructure anywhere from 2 to 8% of the GDP of low-to-middle-income countries. Let us assume that the climate adaptation needs of these countries is half of these average costs (recovering from COVID-19 is a topical example of a non-climate-related cost) — say around 2% of GDP — and that the developed world funds approximately half. The ratio of GDP between low- and lower-middle-income countries and high-income countries is about 0.6. Then, in round figures, an investment corresponding to 0.5% of developed countries’ GDP (about $250 billion per year, consistent with the UNEP estimate above) is needed to fund a programme with the ambition of a latter-day Marshall Plan.
This is a lot of money. However, the amount should be placed in context. The UK government has announced that it will reduce the UK’s carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050. We believe it that such a commitment will cost around £50 billion a year, or 2% of UK GDP. If we assume that the cost of such mitigation actions in other developed countries will similarly be 2% of GDP, then for every dollar that a developed country spends on reaching net zero by 2050, it should spend the second quarter of a dollar on building climate resilience in the developing world. Of course, a single country acting on its own in this area would have little impact. However, a leadership role taken by a country such as the UK will inspire other developed economies to follow suit.https://www.nature.com/
There remains to be a good deal of resilience to recognizing and acknowledging the severity of this ever-improaching world crisis. If we can just encourage one another to make the small differences in our homes. To spread the word and correct those ignorant people that still do not believe in climate change and that global warming is here now.
There will be obstacles, catastrophes, and challenges that most of civilisation would never have experienced. These will ensue and we can not plan for or foresee for certainty.
In reality, we do not honestly have an alternative. If we are to safeguard our offspring’s future, then we are required to recognise that achieving both mitigation and adaptation is the way to fend off the worst outcome. With this system we can minimise cause and effect for the children of today’s home. These adults of the future will then have an earth to live on that will be better than now, they will be greenhouse gases free, and more aware of the consequences of greed and capitalism. They will recognise the need to respect mother nature and our planet.
The fallout from humans poisoning the planet, our home has already started. 2020 was globally affected by extreme weather precipitation and if we look further back we can see the freak weather there too. There is still time to slow down any more climate damage, to put right some of the wrong.
“Fast-forward a couple hundred generations and someone will be here. But if we succeed in making these changes and think from a more transformational viewpoint. The life altering effect it will have on the future society will be catastrophic.
What we do now to improve this influence, change and negative affect is vital. If we chose to carry on ignoring the planets cries for help then we are being immoral, selfish and naïve. We’re living in an extraordinary time and a different world and we are required to determine the future differently.
Let us be clear about one thing, humans are not about to become extinct and the world is not about to end. We merely have to be more mindful of our resources and stop poisoning the planet. We need to recognise that our lifestyles will be different and adjust accordingly. The planet has gone through various ice ages, volcanic heat ages, 97% covered in water ages and it probably will again. This is just a transition brought on early by human error, and as sovereigns to the planet we need to put it right.
Please glance at this website about Sweden this country has accomplished remarkable objectives and should be an incentive to us all. If we unify and function collectively then we can over come any challenges including an alien intervention.
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Sybella Loram
Sybella Loram's Climate Change Blog 