Climate adaptation is needed while climate mitigation is underway

King Tide flooding in West Palm Beach, Florida, April 2022. Photo Credit: Carl Flick

By George Fechter

Board Chairman, Resilient Enterprise Solutions, LLC

Bonita, Florida

Many Americans believe that climate change represents an existential threat. At particularly high risk are those living in areas where flooding is increasing in both frequency and severity. No hurricane is needed to devastate a community with water, now that we have extreme rainfall, sea level rise and King Tides.

A super majority of words have been written, from the Paris Accord forward, to place emphasis on climate mitigation – those actions that will reduce carbon emissions, cool temperatures and slow down rising waters. The science tells us that if we did everything right to curb our carbon emissions, if we could have the electric vehicle programs of Norway, heat pump policies of Japan, and vast alternative energy sources of Australia, we could over time decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

We often fail to recognize though that destructive flooding will continue for decades, if not centuries, after we have reversed our carbon emissions.

While it is essential to our survival, climate mitigation alone can’t save us; it needs to be coupled with climate adaptation. We especially need to learn to live with the reality of increased flooding, as the Dutch have done for over one thousand years. Effective adaptation strategies include higher sea walls, improved drainage, flood barriers, elevating coastal homes and businesses, and in the most dire, flood-prone regions, the last resort would be managed retreat.

These are proven remedies that will allow Americans to endure flooding and protect our way of life. So why are we not taking these steps with greater haste?

Like the Covid pandemic, coastal and inland flooding can represent a high-level threat to our existence. There are lessons to be learned from the management of Covid that are relevant to this challenge. During the pandemic, most would say the U.S. earned an A+ grade in science. We scored well in the development of vaccines in record time that could reduce the incidence of infection and minimize the hospitalizations and deaths.

In science we got an A+, but in implementation and education, we got an F.

We experienced more deaths from Covid than any other industrialized nation, and our country remains polarized -- we are still arguing about the best ways to combat the virus. We failed to educate our citizens adequately, or to mobilize and deliver what was proven science. We could have prevented countless deaths.

With climate change, the parallels are clear. We have earned an A+ in science, the expert data and analyses are in, but we are failing when it comes to education and implementation of solutions.

We need to learn from the Covid experience that we must educate all citizens, policy-makers and solutions providers regarding flooding adaptation remedies and strategies. We must act fast to demonstrate how those remedies and strategies need to be made affordable and accessible for property owners at all income levels.

Here the threat isn’t a question of probability – it’s a question of timing. When will the hurricane hit, when will the King Tide rise to swamp our homes, when will extreme rain events devastate our cities. It could be years from now, or it could be this summer. We have the technology we need to protect ourselves. We know what to do – let’s do it.

We hope that Covid will soon be like another seasonal flu, with seasonal vaccines to address new variants. Unfortunately, climate change and related coastal flooding will plague mankind for decades and possibly centuries to come. The costs will be astronomical, the human suffering extraordinary, unless we accelerate our climate adaptation planning now.

There is a way, if we can muster the will, to couple mitigation with adaptation, combined into flexible remedies that can be made affordable to all residential property owners. This is without doubt the looming challenge of this current generation and generations to come. Let our A+ scientists be our guide, as we prepare for this next test. We must gather our resources, our private and public partners, and prioritize climate adaptation planning without delay.