To Pielke and others, this means adaptation should be given a much higher priority that it's received to date. "There's a cultural bias in favor of prevention," he says. But any sound policy includes preparation as well, he adds. "We have the scientific and technological knowledge we need to improve adaptation" and apply that knowledge globally.
From Nature.com:
Even if the world stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, the emissions already in the atmosphere would cause global temperatures to climb for the next hundred years and the sea level to keep rising for even longer, scientists have calculated.
Researchers have long known that the oceans delay the full effects of climate change because they heat up more slowly than the land. But until now they have had only a vague idea of how this lag will shape our long-term climate.
Two studies by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, use sophisticated computer models to show just how much climate change we have already signed up for.
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