One of the challenges of climate change is the need to identify local adaptation strategies. Most climate models deal with the global and regional effects, but municipalities and provinces (or states) are going to have to develop their own policy for adapting to conditions such as water shortages, because local changes will vary. Whether you believe it's caused by global warming or not, there has been localised climate variability that has been significant enough to require a policy response in places like Cape Town. A paper on developing a municipal adaptation plan by UCT researchers Mukheibir and Ziervogel in April 2007 noted:
If climate variability is to increase, it is necessary to understand how climate impacts on the different sectors and their resultant vulnerabilities. This will focus attention on where priority intervention might reduce the impacts of climate change, and help cities to adapt rather than react when the damage has already been done. [...]
Recently, the Western Cape has experienced a drought that can be attributed to climate variability. Climate variability is expected to alter the present hydrological resources in Southern Africa and to place added pressure on the adaptability of future water resources.
Get out your rain barrel. Things are gonna get worse.
That's the adaptation side of the climate equation. The issue of localised responses also applies to the more frequently discussed issue of how to minimise climate change. A number of strategies are based on the idea of taking carbon out of the air. There's a lot of debate about whether there is any point at all in planting trees to absorb carbon dioxide from the air, but a recent study financed by the National Science Foundation has shown that there is absolutely no point in planting trees for this purpose in northern latitudes. Tropical rainforests seem to be far more effective as carbon sinks. So if you're feeling uneasy about your carbon-heavy lifestyle and want to pay someone to plant guilt-reducing trees, at least make sure they are going where they'll make a difference.
Anyway, as this grist post about carbon offsets points out, if we're going to do anything with trees it's probably a better idea to focus on "avoided deforestation" projects rather than on planting new forests. Vast swaths of tropical rainforest are cleared by burning, which pumps more carbon into the air, and oftentimes the cleared land is useless for agriculture and is abandoned after a couple of years.
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