Climate change adaptation
Climate change adaptation is the process of adjusting to the effects of climate change. These can be both current or expected impacts. Adaptation aims to moderate or avoid harm for people, and is usually done alongside climate change mitigation. It also aims to exploit opportunities. Humans may also intervene to help adjustment for natural systems. There are many adaptation strategies or options. They can help manage impacts and risks to people and nature. The four types of adaptation actions are infrastructural, institutional, behavioural and nature-based options.
Wetland restoration in Australia
Checking contours in Monterey County strawberry fields, United States
Terraces, conservation tillage and conservation buffers save soil and improve water quality on this farm in Woodbury County in northwest Iowa, United States.
Launching the Coastal City Adaptation Project in Quelimane, Mozambique
Effects of climate change
Effects of climate change are well documented and growing for Earth's natural environment and human societies. Changes to the climate system include an overall warming trend, changes to precipitation patterns, and more extreme weather. As the climate changes it impacts the natural environment with effects such as more intense forest fires, thawing permafrost, and desertification. These changes impact ecosystems and societies, and can become irreversible once tipping points are crossed.
New Orleans submerged after Hurricane Katrina, September 2005
A dry lakebed in California. In 2022, the state was experiencing its most serious drought in 1,200 years, worsened by climate change.
Climate change causes a drop in the ocean's pH value (called ocean acidification): Time series of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa (in parts per million volume, ppmv; red), surface ocean pCO2 (μatm; blue) and surface ocean pH (green) at Ocean Station ALOHA in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean.
Part of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 2016 after a coral bleaching event (partly caused by rising ocean temperatures and marine heatwaves).