Cities are on the front-line of climate change. They must adapt or die

Cities are the anchors of human civilization. By 2050, roughly three quarters of humanity will live in one. While offering extraordinary opportunities for prosperity, creativity and wellbeing, cities of tomorrow will also confront monumental challenges associated with poverty, inequality and fragility. Decisions made by urban leaders in the next decade will determine the livability – even the survival – of cities across the planet.

One factor uniting cities is that all of them will suffer the effects of climate change. Most will experience rising levels of flood exposure, water shortages, storms and heat stress. The severity of risk will be mediated by their location – whether on the littoral or inland – but also the extent of their preparedness. Governments, businesses and civil society groups have an opportunity now to design-in resilience to our cities, but no city is immune to the coming storm.

In fact, most cities are already on the front-line of climate change. At least 70% of them are currently dealing with sudden onset disasters and long-term environmental stress. They are confronting a host of related challenges ranging from health pandemics to population displacement. The massive concentration of people in cities over the coming decades – especially in Africa and Asia – will almost certainly exacerbate traffic congestion, worsen air quality and increase amounts of waste.

Read the World Economic Forum story - “Cities are on the front-line of climate change.They must adapt or die.”

'The fog of distance' worsens of perceptions of climate change

Ian Cheney.

If anyone was looking for clarity from the recent United Nations climate talks in Paris, they will have been sorely disappointed. To some people the outcome suggested that human civilization was finally taking some measured steps to readjust the global thermostat. For others, the world remains tethered to a business-as-usual inertia.

And for some climate scientists, the situation is looking increasingly dire.

Should it really be this hard? If puffing gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is warming the planet — and the science is clear that it is — then we ought to just stop the puffing and the problem will be fixed, right? If only it were that easy. The climate problem and its potential solutions are, in a word, big. They are big politically, scientifically, technologically, and temporally, and they are enormous psychologically — even emotionally.

Read Ian Cheney’s story “The Measure of a Fog: Distance.”

Privates concerns outweigh public admissions of climate scientists

Dr Andrew Glikson.

In private conversations, many climate scientists express far greater concern at the progression of global warming and its consequences than they do in public, writes Dr Andrew Glikson.

In an article titled When the End of Human Civilization Is Your Day Job, a reference to a study by the University of Bristol cites, "Climate scientists have been so distracted and intimidated by the relentless campaign against them that they tend to avoid any statements that might get them labelled 'alarmists', retreating into a world of charts and data."

An analogy comes to mind of a medical team advising distressed relatives of the prognosis of a cancer patient, indicating a possible remission should the patient cease smoking. Some of the relatives plunge into depression but some criticise and attack the doctors, aided and abetted by the tobacco industry.

Read this opinion piece by Andrew Glikson on The Drum - “Global heating and the dilemma of climate scientists.”