Adaptation to Global Warming / Climate Change

Adaptation will be needed along with mitigation. Because impacts are already being observed and because the ocean takes a long time to heat up, mitigation - although crucial - will not be enough. Adaptation unfortunately will not be a simple matter. The human race is no longer composed of small groups of hunter-gatherers, but billions of people generally living in highly arranged societies with limited mobility. The worse the impacts of global warming, the more difficult adaptation will be.

We should start planning for adaptation now, along with mitigation to try to lessen the impact of global warming. Adaptation should not be used as an excuse not to mitigate global warming.

The most complete compendium of research on adaptation is the 2007 IPCC Report, Vol. II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability), content outline is BELOW.

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IPCC Report Vol. II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson, Eds.

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 976 pp

Contents

• Introduction to the Report

• Summary for Policymakers

• Technical Summary

• Chapter 1: Assessment of Observed Changes and Responses in Natural and Managed Systems - [ Supplementary Material ]

• Chapter 2: New Assesment Methods and the Characterisation of Future Conditions

• Chapter 3: Fresh Water Resources and their Management

• Chapter 4: Ecosystems, their Properties, Goods and Services

• Chapter 5: Food, Fibre, and Forest Products

• Chapter 6: Coastal Systems and Low-Lying Areas

• Chapter 7: Industry, Settlement and Society

• Chapter 8: Human Health

• Chapter 9: Africa

• Chapter 10: Asia

• Chapter 11: Australia and New Zealand

• Chapter 12: Europe

• Chapter 13: Latin America

• Chapter 14: North America

• Chapter 15: Polar Regions (Arctic and Antarctic)

• Chapter 16: Small Islands

• Chapter 17: Assessment of Adaptation Practices, Options, Constraints and Capacity

• Chapter 18: Inter-Relationships Between Adaptation and Mitigation - [ Supplementary Material ]

• Chapter 19: Assessing Key Vulnerabilities and the Risk from Climate Change

• Chapter 20: Perspectives on Climate Change and Sustainability

Cross-Chapter Case Studies 

Appendices I-V: Glossary, Contributors, Reviewers, Acronyms, Permissions

Index

Errata for Working Group II Fourth Assesment Report

(Last updated 26 June 2010)

Figures

Summary for Policymakers & Technical Summary: 

Arabic - Chinese - French - Russian - Spanish

Statements on issues raised since the release of the AR4

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