Climate and Climate Change

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Section 1
Introduction
Climate change can be generally referred to the overall change in regional, continental or global climate patterns. These changes care normally very significant as they tend to have lasting impacts on the distribution of weather patterns over long periods of time ranging from a few to millions of years. Adaptation to climate change simply refers to the efforts that mankind is deploying in general to get ready for any future changes in climate. The efforts can be with the main objective of protecting the ecosystem from negative/adverse impacts that come along climate change or rather they can be with the aim of taking advantage of the benefits that the climate changes may bring forth.( White, J. C. (1991).
Explain why adaptation to climate change is necessary and discuss how we might adapt urban areas to future climate change and extreme weather events.
Adaptation techniques applied to respond to climate change are not new phenomena as it has been in place for ages throughout the history of mankind. Overtime societies have found it important to develop adaptation strategies to changes in environmental and climate changes. It has proved to be a worthwhile venture to invest in climate change adaptation strategies as they provide many benefits if they are done or implemented in the right way. (Davoudi, S., Crawford, J., & Mehmood, A. (2009)
Adapting to climate change is very crucial in modern day as over the past few years has proved to be so dynamic that the frequency and extent of changes cannot be easily predicted. That notwithstanding adapting to climate change is necessary as it enables appropriate actions to be undertaken to prevent or at least minimize the damage that is associated changes in climate. On the other hand climate change may come along with some benefits and thus adaptation measures may be fashioned in a way that exploits the potential advantages that are associated with the changes. In a nutshell it is worth noting that if proper measures are undertaken to enable effective adaptation to climate change it will on the long run save millions of dollars to world economies and at the same time save millions of lives that would have been otherwise lost due to the negative effects of climate change. (Davoudi, S., Crawford, J., & Mehmood, A. (2009)
Urban areas have implemented some techniques to deal with change in climate that may be characterized with extreme weather. Some of the techniques are discussed below.
Water resources
Since urban areas are normally characterized by dense populations, policies should be implemented that seek to improve effective use of water on top of that additional water storage facilities should be constructed to boost the current water capacities. Rivers and streams that run through the urban settings should be to maintain the quantity of water in those streams at the same time they should be safe guarded to ensure a high quality of water from those streams and rivers is maintained.
Human health
Prior warnings should be effectively communicated to citizens to encourage them to prepare both physically and psychologically to changes in the frequency and intensity of adverse weather changes. Urban settings should encourage tree planting and expansion of the current green parks to help in moderating increase in heat levels.
Energy
Efficiency in the use of energy resources should be encouraged to aid in offsetting the increase in energy consumption levels.
Coasts
Coastal cities should provide free shore space allowances to enable beaches to move inland in the event sea levels rise.
Conclusion
In a nutshell it can be concluded that adaptation to changes in climate is very vital and all societies should invest in this noble course as in the long run it help save millions of money and also many lives which would have been lost otherwise are saved.
Section 2
Introduction
Adaptation to climate change generally involves designing methods, techniques and strategies that seek to safeguard humanity and the ecosystem in general by minimizing their vulnerability to adverse climate change effects. On the other hand mitigation is a process that attempts to derail the process of climate change and it is mainly achieved by reducing the presence of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. (Metz, B. (2007).
Adaptation and mitigation should be a two-pronged approach to dealing with climate change. Discuss this statement, providing appropriate examples of both types of options.
Indeed adaptation and mitigation should be a two-pronged approach to dealing with climate change as none of the two processes will conclusively solve the problem of climate change in isolation. Thus feasibility needs to be carried out to ascertain which technique is suitable or viable under what circumstance and when or when not to apply a particular technique. These processes should be implemented hand in hand as each of them got a designated role that it plays as the nations of the world are trying to respond to the climate change problem. (Hildreth, R. G. (2009). Mitigation aims at causing a significant reduction in the real agents that cause climate change i.e. by reducing the quantity of greenhouse gases emission to the atmosphere. On the other hand adaptation aims at ensuring that the countries worldwide are braced and prepared enough to fit for changes in climate and thus they will not be strained to respond to these changes when they actually occur. (Keskitalo, E. C. H. (2010)
Mitigation strategies are efforts that contribute to a general public good. In other words mitigation is not meant to benefit any specific individual nation but its good is enjoyed by the world over as no single person or country that ca...