National Priorities for Adapting to Global Warming

Human-caused climate change is one of the defining challenges of the twenty-first century. But we seem no closer to adequately addressing the problem than when scientists first identified it decades ago.

All indications, therefore, point to adaptation as a necessary policy response to climate change. And yet, while the benefits of improved adaption to future climate impacts are clear and the politics around adaptation are much less rancorous than around global warming, climate adaptation remains a policy backwater. A sensible federal policy agenda for adaptation has yet to emerge.

How can climate adaptation become a national priority?

Bruce Guile, president and cofounder of the New Advisory Group, and Raj Pandya, the founding director of the Thriving Earth Exchange at the American Geophysical Union, will address exactly that question to mark the publication of the Summer 2018 Issues in Science and Technology. They will discuss “Adapting to Global Warming: Four National Priorities,” their clear-eyed assessment of the policy steps needed to use human ingenuity to confront climate change.