ENVS670 - The Challenge of Climate Adaptation

The climate change dialogue in the US has been largely focused on the "mitigation" issues relating to the reduction in emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHG's). While mitigation is critically important, the challenge of climate "adaptation" must also be considered to fully understand the implications of climate change. The scope of adaptation is largely dependent on how aggressively and successfully we address mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, and, at present, adaptation best practices are still evolving. This course will approach climate adaptation from a multidisciplinary perspective -- technical, political, financial and regulatory. After introducing the basic concepts of climate adaptation, the course will explore the current state of play at each level of scale -- from the local to the global -- and examine several of the key emerging topics that will affect public and private sector activities.