CLIMATE ADAPTATION
Posted on: October 13, 2021
PART-1: WHAT THE UK ENVIRONMENT AGENCY SAYS
Hundreds of people could die in floods in the UK. The country is not ready for the impact of climate change. Earlier this year in Germany, dozens of people died in floods and (“therefore”) that will happen in the UK. sooner or later unless the UK becomes resilient. The bottom line for the UK in the climate change issue is this: adapt or die. Global warming effects such as higher sea levels and more extremes of rainfall and drought requires the country’s readiness to cope with climate change impacts. The UK Environment department will take measures to protct the UK from climate change impacts. We are currently heading for an increase in the global average temperature of just under 3C by the end of the century but even a smaller rise of 2C would have severe consequences: Winter rainfall up by 6% by the 2050s and 8% by the 2080s, Summer rainfall down by about 15% by the 2050s, London’s sea level up by 23cm by the 2050s and 45cm by the 2080s, peak river flows up 27% and summer flows down by 82% that will increase demand for water supply by 3.4 billion litres per day. To successfully tackle the climate emergency the UK must implement effective adaptation measures. To avoid Germany’s flood catastrophe, the UK must build flood defences. The UK must adapt to increasing weather extremes. As for COP26, Governments around the world must promise more ambitious cuts in warming gases if we are to prevent global temperature rise. The summit in Glasgow is where this change could happen. The question is whether promises made by the big polluters like the USA and China will be kept. Climate change will change our lives and impact our jobs, how we heat our homes, what we eat and how we travel. In addition, the UK needs to restore natural systems that absorb carbon dioxide and hold back rainwater. If the UK gets it right their citizens will be safer and more prosperous. The UK must invest in flood protection and coastal defences like the Thames Barrier to avoid the flood tragedy of 1953. COP26: The COP26 climate summit is important. Questions with no answers: What will climate change look like for you?, Will the UK meet it’s climate targets?, How extreme weather is linked to climate change? The UK needs better technology for warning communities about food risk and with better coordination among emergncy services. Billions of pounds have been spent on flood defences – and that more is earmarked. As the host of COP26, the UK is highlighting the importance of helping communities and nature to adapt to climate change. £5.2bn has been budgeted to protect 336,000 propertis from flooding and £640m has been budgeted to tackle climate change and adaptation together. The UK is taking robust action to increase resilience to climate change as a climate change adaptation policy and using the COP26 presidency to promote climate adaptation strategies around the world.
PART-2: CRITICAL COMMENTARY
THE ISSUE AND SUBJECT MATTER OF COPS IN GENERAL AND COP26 IN PARTICULAR IS STRICTLY CLIMATE ACTION. TO FORMULATE AND TO IMPLEMENT A CLIMATE ACTION PLAN ON A GLOBAL SCALE IN THE IMAGE OF THE MONTREAL PROTOCOL – THE SO CALLED “MONTREAL PROTOCOL FOR THE CLIMATE. (MPFC).
BUT WHAT WE SEE IN UK CLIMATE HEROISM AS HOST OF COP26 AND ON THE EVE OF COP26 IS THAT THE UK IS FOCUSSED ENTIRELY ON ADAPTATION. IT SHOULD BE MENTIONED THAT CLIMATE ADAPTATION STRATEGIES ARE NECESSARY ONLY IF AND WHEN CLIMATE ACTION HAS BEEN ABANDONED.
PERHAPS THE UK IS WISER THAN THE REST SUCH THAT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE LOGIC THAT THE REASON WE NEED THE GLASGOW COP26 IN THE YEAR 2021 IS THAT THE 25 PREVIOUS COPS HELD SINCE 1995 HAVE ALL FAILED. EVEN THE SO CALLED “PARIS AGREEMENT” THAT HAD BEEN PRESENTED TO US AS A SUCCESS IS NOW REVEALED TO BE A FAILURE SIMPLY BECAUSE THE NEED FOR COP26 REVEALS THE UGLY TRUTH THAT ALL THE PREVIOUS COPS HAVE FAILED. AND INDEED THEY HAVE.
AND THE UK KNOWS THAT WELL. AND THEY HAVE CHOSEN THE RATIONAL OPTION AS IN “SINCE WE KNOW THAT COP CLIMATE ACTIONS DON’T WORK AND SINCE WE WANT TO PROTECT OUR CITIZENS, OUR CLIMATE CHANGE STRATEGY HAS TO BE ONE OF ADAPTATION.
BRAVO!!!!
ESSENTIALLY, ENGLAND HAS GIVEN THE FINGER TO THE UN AND ITS COPS.
OTHER GLORIOUS MOMENTS IN ENGLAND’S HISTORY
RELATED POST ON COPS: LINK: https://tambonthongchai.com/2021/08/21/cop26-glasgow-2021/
POSTSCRIPT:
MEANWHILE IN SWEDEN,
Greta Thunberg wants climate action success at COP26. She wants world leaders to honestly admit that their action is not living up to their words.
COPs secure pledges from member countries
but COPs have no way of enforcing those pledges
so what do the pledges mean?
A crude translation of Greta’s observation about the COP program of the United Nations {in the blogger’s crude language} is that it is a fucking joke.
The decision by the UK to give up on COPs and focus on adaptation is consistent with this assessment of the COP program for global climate action and with the long history of 25 COPs consisting of 25 faiures and zero successes.
For reasons unknown and unfathomable, this charade continues with great aplomb and fanfare.
RELATED POST ON COPS: LINK: https://tambonthongchai.com/2021/08/21/cop26-glasgow-2021/
LINK TO THE GRETA ARTICLE: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/greta-seeks-honesty-from-world-leaders-at-cop-26-79666
3 Responses to "CLIMATE ADAPTATION"
October 18, 2021 at 7:15 am
Greta Thunberg aptly and poignantly described the global-warming (non)efforts of faux or neo-environmentalist politicos as just more “blah, blah, blah”. To me, though, she was also saying that, while bone-dry-vegetation world regions uncontrollably burn, mass addiction to fossil fuel products undoubtedly helps keep the average consumer quiet about the planet’s greatest polluter, lest they feel and/or be publicly deemed hypocritical. Meanwhile, neoliberals and conservatives remain preoccupied with vocally criticizing one another for their relatively trivial politics and diverting attention away from some of the planet’s greatest polluters, where it should and needs to be sharply focused.
Industry and fossil-fuel friendly governments can tell when a very large portion of the populace is too tired and worried about feeding/housing themselves or their family, and the virus-variant devastation still being left in COVID-19’s wake — all while on insufficient income — to criticize them for whatever environmental damage their policies cause/allow, particularly when not immediately observable. (In fact, until recently, I had not heard Greta’s name in the mainstream corporate news-media since COVID-19 hit the world.)
As individual consumers, far too many of us still recklessly behave as though throwing non-biodegradable garbage down a dark chute, or pollutants flushed down toilet/sink drainage pipes or emitted out of elevated exhaust pipes or spewed from sky-high jet engines and very tall smoke stacks — even the largest toxic-contaminant spills in rarely visited wilderness — can somehow be safely absorbed into the air, water, and land (i.e. out of sight, out of mind); like we’re inconsequentially dispensing of that waste into a black-hole singularity, in which it’s compressed into nothing.
I have long said that, collective human existence has been dangerously analogous to a cafeteria lineup consisting of diversely societally represented people, all adamantly arguing over which identifiable person should be at the front and, conversely, at the back of the line. Many of them further fight over to whom amongst them should go the last piece of quality pie and how much they should have to pay for it — all the while the interstellar spaceship on which they’re all permanently confined, owned and operated by (besides the wealthiest passengers) the fossil fuel industry, is on fire and toxifying at locations not normally investigated. As a species, we really can be so heavily preoccupied with our own individual albeit often overwhelming little worlds, that we’ll miss the biggest of pictures.
October 22, 2021 at 8:24 am
Very interesting assessment. Thank you very much. I’ll read it again after golf.
Thongchai Thailand 
October 13, 2021 at 11:13 pm
Climate change adaption?
The Thames and the Rhine were one river emptying into the Celtic Sea before the “real” climate change started 10,000+ years ago.
Do we all have too much time on our hands?