People standing in sea water near the shore in Brooklyn, NY, handing each other bags of oysters as part of an oyster reef restoration project.

Climate Change Adaptation

Credits

Dr. Ingrid H. H. Zabel

Chapter Images

All images in this chapter are available for free download.

Chapter Contents

Climate Change Adaptation

  1. Why We Need to Adapt and Build Resilience
  2. The Costs and Benefits of Adaptation
  3. Types of Adaptation Strategies
  4. Adaptation to Different Climate Hazards
  5. Climate Justice and Equity
  6. Summary and Additional Resources
  7. Activities for Climate Change Adaptation Chapter

Image above: Community oyster reef installation in Coney Island Creek, Brooklyn, NY. Oyster reefs can help protect coastal communities from damage done by extreme storms. Photograph by Hhetrick via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0 license)

While it is imperative that we continue to expand our mitigation efforts to limit the amount of human-caused climate change, we also need to find ways to adapt to changes that are already happening. Adaptation will help us become more resilient to extreme weather and other climate hazards that we'll face in the future even as we work to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases. This chapter explores existing and proposed adaptation strategies for a variety of climate hazards and examines some of the challenges these strategies present.
Next: Why We Need to Adapt and Build Resilience