Adaptation, No; Mitigation, No; Co-adaptation, Yes

John Baird served his first term as minister of the environment in Stephen Harper’s government in 2007 and 2008. At that time, climate change was near the forefront of public policy. There was a debate about whether mitigation measures alone could address the climate crisis and protect Canadians.

It was a real policy question: “How much to spend on adaptation versus mitigation?”

Baird was dismayed when departmental officials informed him that mitigation alone cannot suffice. He was told that Canadians would have to adapt to climate change, and it would cost a fair bit.

For those of us following the science closely, that was no surprise. It was obvious that negative impacts of climate change, particularly extreme weather events, were already occurring and were “baked into” the future climate system.

Looking back, I wonder why Baird was so reluctant to accept the need for climate adaptation.

Perhaps he, like most Canadians, believed in the possibility of a seamless transition to a new economy free from greenhouse gas-emitting substances. The hope was that technological advances would allow life to proceed pretty much as normal—cars, international travel, abundant consumer goods, imported foods, and so forth. Endless growth.

“Adaptation” meant an uncertain future and unwelcome changes to our lifestyles.

Now, two decades later, it’s pretty obvious that climate change is making us adapt. If it’s too hot or smoky outside for your daughter’s afternoon soccer practice, or your basement floods, or your house burns down, your lifestyle has changed. Adaptation is forced upon you.

The mission of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change—to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that prevents dangerous human interference with the climate system—has become a bit of a joke. We’ve interfered.

It’s time to rethink adaptation. The danger isn’t human interference with the climate system, that’s a given. The real danger is throwing up our hands and saying “nothing can be done, so we’ll just adapt.”

That brings us back to mitigation.

Mitigation has not proven very helpful. It’s been interpreted as a little tweak here, a little tweak there. Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents, no, sorry, make that LEDs, and everything will be fine. Your next car will be an electric SUV. Life can go on as it always has. Let’s abandon our fatalistic attachment to “Economic Growth” (capitals, please).

“Adaptation” now means struggling up off the mat after climate change has knocked us

down.“Mitigation” means reducing use of fossil fuels a little bit here or there, allowing us to burn more doing something else. Politicians these days are all too willing to let the oil and gas boys keep pumping—burn, baby burn.

This represents policy failure.

Unsurprisingly, we’re into runaway climate change—accelerating rates of increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases. Feedback loops have kicked in. Global warming means more forest fires, which releases more carbon dioxide, which causes more warming, which leads to more fires. And the permafrost is melting.

Life hangs by a thread. Our last hope is co-adaptation. This requires transforming the economic system so humans help nature adapt to the changing environment, and vice-versa. We are connected to every other species—“All my relations.” Make those connections positive.

So many actions can bring mutual benefit to us and other species. Planting a native tree helps the gene pool of that species. It returns the favour—beauty, shade, rainfall.

Ecologists emphasize that the global economy is a subset of Earth’s larger ecosystem. Adjust economic policy. Slow down in a planned, collaborative manner. Devote tax dollars to creating good jobs, largely in the “service economy.” Support artists, musicians and writers. Install and maintain solar panels and wind turbines. Build homes responsibly. Produce and sell food responsibly. Keep Canada healthy. Restore ecosystems—their growth is real economic growth.

We pretty much know how to do all this, but when in doubt, the basic rule is, let nature grow. Stop spraying the chemicals of death.

Nature had four billion years to get good at adaptation. Now it’s our responsibility to help her.

The post Adaptation, No; Mitigation, No; Co-adaptation, Yes appeared first on rabble.ca.

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