Given past and current emission levels, the planet is already on the path of significant climate change. Strong efforts to restrict emissions can limit the harm but cannot prevent some serious impacts, particularly in vulnerable areas such as the arid western United States. Other concerns nationally include heat wave deaths, flood damage from intensified storm systems, and ecosystem harm. Adaptation planning requires an assessment of how the climate will affect human activities and how to respond to those changes. These assessments flip current practices in environmental law around: instead of asking how human activities impact the environment, we instead begin by asking how environmental change will impact humans. Read the rest of this entry »
