Adapting to Climate Change: Thresholds, Values, Governance

by Edited by W. Neil Adger , Irene Lorenzoni , Karen L. O'Brien

• ISBN13: 9780521764858
• ISBN10: 0521764858
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-07-31
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Adapting to climate change is a critical problem facing humanity. This involves reconsidering our lifestyles, and is linked to our actions as individuals, societies and governments. This book presents the latest science and social science research on whether the world can adapt to climate change. Written by experts, both academics and practitioners, it examines the risks to ecosystems, demonstrating how values, culture and the constraining forces of governance act as barriers to action. As a state-of-the-art review of science and a holistic assessment of adaptation options, it is essential reading for those concerned with responses to climate change, especially researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and graduate students. Significant features include historical, contemporary, and future insights into adaptation to climate change; coverage of adaptation issues from different perspectives: climate science, hydrology, engineering, ecology, economics, human geography, anthropology and political science; and contributions from leading researchers and practitioners from around the world.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Adaptation now

Adapting to Thresholds in Physical and Ecological Systems

Ecological limits of adaptation to climate change

Adapting to the effects of climate change on water supply reliability

Protecting London from tidal flooding: limits to engineering adaptation

Climate prediction: a limit to adaptation?

Learning to crawl: how to use seasonal climate forecasts to build adaptive capacity

Norse Greenland settlement and limits to adaptation

Sea ice change in Arctic Canada: are there limits to Inuit adaptation?

The Role of Value and Culture in Adaptation

The past, present and some possible futures of adaptation

Do values subjectively define the limits to climate change adaptation?

Conceptual and practical barriers to adaptation: vulnerability and responses to heat waves in the UK

Values and cost-benefit analysis: economic efficiency criteria in adaptation

Hidden costs and disparate uncertainties: trade-offs in approaches to climate policy

Community based adaptation and culture in theory and practice

Exploring the invisibility of local knowledge in decision-making: the Boscastle harbour flood disaster

Adaptation and conflict within fisheries: insights for living with climate change

Exploring cultural dimensions of adaptation to climate change

Adapting to an uncertain climate on the great plains: testing hypotheses on historical populations

Climate change and adaptive human migration: lessons from rural North America

Governance, Knowledge and Technologies for Adaptation

Are our levers long and our fulcra strong enough? Exploring the soft underbelly of adaptation decisions and actions

Decentralized planning and climate adaptation: toward transparent governance

Climate adaptation, local institutions and rural livelihoods

Adaptive governance for a changing coastline: science, policy and publics in search of a sustainable future

Climate change, international cooperation and adaptation in transboundary water management

Decentralization: a window of opportunity for successful adaptation to climate change?

Adapting to climate change: the nation-state as problem and solution

Limits to adaptation: analysing institutional constraints

Accessing diversification, networks and traditional resource management as adaptations to climate extremes

Governance limits to effective global financial support for adaptation

Organizational learning and governance in adaptation in urban development

Conclusions: transforming the world

Index

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