The insanity of “We’ll just adapt”

First prevent, then cure (or adapt)

“We’ll just adapt.”  It’s a commonly-heard response to climate change from individuals and politicians – and for me, a frustrating one.  True, the sad reality is that we’ve procrastinated so long on emission reduction that we now face some unavoidable consequences.

But “We’ll just adapt” frustrates me for two reasons.  First, because it’s typically a thinly disguised excuse for business as usual, and continued procrastination on climate action.

Secondly, and much more critically, because it implies the speaker actually understands what we’re adapting to, and actually believes there will be a new stability we can hang our hats onto.

It’s my experience that the larger consequences of climate change, such as water shortages, crop failures, food insecurity, political instability, climate refugees and sea level rise (this new report was released just this morning), are poorly understand by most people.  Climate change is not just a few degrees of temperature.

And climate change will accelerate, not stabilize, until we eliminate the emissions that are driving it.  So how can we even think about adapting to something that continues to change and deteriorate?

Perhaps the quote in this meme may be helpful in building understanding of why reducing emissions needs to be our priority.

First, we need to stop the source of climate change, emissions.  Then we can think about adapting to our new reality.

(PS Have an idea for a better analogy?  If so, please share!)