The Basics of Climate Change Adaptation

It’s difficult not to get discouraged by the general “doom-and-gloom” feel of conversations centred on climate change, and that’s understandable. It’s a massive conversation that needs to be had by everyone that plans on living on planet Earth for the foreseeable (and distant) future. As such, writing a blog post outlining the work I’ve done this summer on climate change without adopting the same “doom-and-gloom” perspective is difficult. But I’m going to try.

As it stands, the effects of climate change have already begun to encroach on our lives. It seems like every year is the new hottest year on record, ecosystem state shifts are becoming apparent, and extreme weather events are becoming more common, and more intense. But like I said, I’m not here to preach the end of days. I’m here because I don’t believe humanity to be a species that is one to roll over and die in the face of adversity.

I believe we are people of action.

Thus, the conversation regarding climate change needs consider adaptation. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines climate change adaptation as adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities.

The ability of an ecosystem to adapt to climate change (called its adaptive capacity), will depend partially on its level of resilience. Resilience is loosely defined as how much stress an entity can endure and still return to its pre-stressed state. Think of this as a rubber band. You can hold a rubber band and stretch it – an application of stress. As you reduce the stress you apply, it will return to its original shape. But if you apply too much stress, the rubber band will snap, and be not only changed, but also very difficult to ever return to its pre-stressed state.

Our ecosystems are rubber bands. Climate change is stretching them. There’s a good to fair chance that they’ll break. Whoops, there’s that doom and gloom sneaking in…

The good news is that there is something we can do to mitigate the impacts of climate change. We as a species put an incredible amount of stress on our ecosystems: through infrastructure development, nutrient pollution, introducing invasive species, and countless other things. We’ve already stretched our ecosystems heavily out of shape. The good news is that most of them haven’t broken…yet. We can help ecosystems gain the capacity to cope with the immense amount of stress that will be applied by climate change by reducing the amount of human-induced stress we place on them, thus increasing their resilience.  The forms this can take are varied. Individual impacts, like riding a bike instead of driving, are good and will help to reduce stress. A greater portion of this stress reduction, however, will need to come from the government – from legislation on protected areas, regulations to typical polluters, and other large-scale measures.

Maintaining our ecosystems is an important job. Alongside the ethical reasons for preserving nature, we also rely on ecosystems for many of the services they provide. Wetlands like swamps and marshes have incredible water-purifying properties. Our coastal salt marshes can stop severe thunderstorms in their tracks, weakening them long before they make landfall near human settlements. Our northern tundra supports caribou and polar bears, animals not only central to our national identity, but also the culture and diet of Indigenous communities. The conversation of climate change adaptation and mitigation is one with stakes much higher than most people realize.

It seems to me that in order to help our ecosystems adapt, humans will also need to ‘adapt’, so to speak. We will need to learn to live in a world that is changing – one where any impact we have on these natural systems could hinder their resilience. We need to learn to be flexible, willing to do what is necessary, and most importantly, proactive in our response.

With ample participation from governments, industries, individuals, and everyone else who has an impact on our environment, we can do our best to mitigate impact and give our ecosystems the resilience they need to face climate change with the best odds of adaptation. Who knows, we may just make it through this thing.

– Calder Schweitzer

About the Author
Calder Schweitzer is a 4th year student at the University of Guelph studying Wildlife Biology and Conservation. He is attending university as a 2015 McCall MacBain Loran Scholar – a recipient of Canada’s largest and most comprehensive undergraduate award. He has worked at CPAWS for most of the summer of 2018 as an intern conducting a literature review on various ecosystem types in Canada, the ways they are threatened, and how certain conservation measures may confer an adaptive benefit to them under climate change. Calder’s past conservation work includes a summer in Western Australia working on long-term monitoring programs of coral, fish, and penguins off the coast of Perth.