Six Ways We Can Adapt to Climate Change

Jack Kochansky

AP Biology EF Even

Mr. Ippolito

6 December 2017

“Six Ways We Can Adapt to Climate Change.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5

Dec. 2017,

www.nytimes.com/2017/12/05/opinion/adapt-climate-change.html?rref=collection%2Fse

ctioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=stream&mod

ule=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront.

In this great article on climate change, the authors of the New York Times Turning Points series describe six important ways in which scientists are already working to adapt to global warming and changing conditions.  First, they describe the work of Nikita and Sergei Zimov, two Russian scientists working at the Northeast Science Station in Russia, who are studying the impacts of a warming planet on the Siberian tundra.  As it is, they realize that the melting of the Russian permafrost could have serious effects on the global climate.  They know that if the icy terrain thaws, “the microbes in the soil will start producing high levels of greenhouse gases,” which dramatically compound the effects of rising planetary temperatures.  They therefore propose making a national park in the area because the animals there will help to compact the tundra and limit the danger of thawing.  Meanwhile, in the Himalayas, Suryanarayanan Balasubramanian is leading a project to help farmers in drier regions of India to have the access to glacial meltwater, something they have had for centuries but are now struggling with because the glaciers melt so much earlier in the season.  The team decided to make an artificial glacier that uses pipes to pump water up from lower altitudes to higher ones, shooting it into the freezing air to form a massive conical glacier structure to support communities.  Meanwhile in Australia, scientists have measured that the Great Barrier Reef is suffering considerably as a result of rising temperatures and ocean acidification.  In fact, “. . . the reef experienced mass bleaching in both 2016 and 2017 — the first time the devastating ecological event was recorded in consecutive years.”  Understanding that we cannot return ocean conditions to what they were before in the short term, scientists like Ken Anthony of the Australian Institute of Marine Science explains to the New York Times some of their other promising solutions.  For example, researchers are looking at assisted evolution for coral varieties and their wildlife and moving coral offspring to more Southern, cooler waters.  Takamitso Ito, a researcher at Georgia Tech, has seen concerning trends with warming seas --  they are not able to hold as much oxygen.  He has also discovered that chemical fertilizers have deoxygenated the ocean, further damaging wildlife.  The United Arab Emirates is considering drastic solutions for their dry conditions there: weather modification.  They get little rainfall, so Professor Linda Zou helped the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science to develop a new way of “cloud-seeding,” a method of pumping particulate nuclei into the air which can be the centers of raindrops, encouraging cloud and rain formation.  Finally, Ethan Brown of the California-based company Beyond Meat has worked to invent food that resembles meat exactly, but without the arguably inhumane and environmentally detrimental effects of livestock.  He has worked to use amino acids, aromatic molecules and other techniques to recreate meats to a startling extent.  Each of these programs is working on something different, but they are all part of a growing global effort to respond to climate change and help our world to adapt to changing times.

Climate change is one of the issues that should be most concerning and pressing for society today.  We are already seeing its effects in severe weather events like Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, and sea levels are slowly rising, endangering cities like Venice and Miami.  And while it is great that a growing percentage (68%) of Americans now believe that humans are primarily responsible for rising global temperatures, simply to accept the facts is not enough.  Every effort to adapt to climate change is therefore a vital part of the movement that needs to begin, and some of these developments could impact our daily lives.  For example, if Brown’s synthetic meat turns out to be a success, it could dramatically shrink the livestock industry in the United States, cutting a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions each year.  And the UAE’s plan for weather modification has the potential to completely reshape the way that we think about weather worldwide.  If we have the ability to change the weather and get rain when we want it, it would symbolize an unprecedented amount of influence we have over the environment.  It also poses certain risks and ethical questions that we have never before needed to consider.  As we have responded to climate change, the technologies that we possess to fundamentally change the environment or even create things always thought to be biologically too complicated are completely reshaping our world.  In the next few years, it will be more important than ever to protect our environments and ecosystems amid a changing climate.

This article was very strong, especially in its brevity and use of specific examples.  The truth is that most people do not have time to read long, scientific analyses, so the choice by the authors to limit each example to a few sentences very likely captivated a larger audience than otherwise.  Also, the inclusion of photos and a diverse array of examples helped to make the article very interesting and intriguing.  I had never know about almost all of the efforts explained, so the brief description of each sparked my interest.  However, there were also a few things that the authors could have done better.  For example, although the article’s short length made it easier to read, it also meant that important details were left out.  The article really only gave a quick overview of each of the six measures being taken, so we were not able to gain an in-depth understanding of any.  I also felt that the images used in the article could have been a little more specific to the action being taken -- if, for example, a picture was included of the artificial conical glaciers being developed in the Himalayas, the readers would have a better understanding of how it works.  The same sort of idea holds true for weather modification in the UAE and the piece about ocean deoxygenation.  However, the article as a whole was very strong and really intrigued me to learn more about new ways that people are adapting to a changing climate and preparing for the future.  Sometime soon, one of these innovations could become the norm.