With the world losing the battle against global warming so far, experts are warning that humans need to follow nature's example: Adapt or die. That means elevating buildings, making taller and stronger dams and seawalls, rerouting water systems, restricting certain developments, changing farming practices and ultimately moving people, plants and animals out of harm's way. Adapting to rising seas and higher temperatures is expected to be a big topic at the UN climate-change talks in Copenhagen next week, along with the projected cost — hundreds of billions of dollars, much of it going to countries that cannot afford it. “It's something that's been neglected, hasn't been talked about and it's something the world will have to do,” said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Adaptation is going to be absolutely crucial for some societies.” Some biologists point to how nature has handled the changing climate. The rare Adonis blue butterfly of Britain looked as if it was going to disappear because it couldn't fly far and global warming was making its habitat unbearable. To biologists' surprise, it evolved longer thoraxes and wings, allowing it to fly farther to cooler locales. Cities, states and countries are scrambling to adapt or are at least talking about it and setting aside money for it. Some examples: • England is strengthening the Thames River flood control barrier at a cost of around half a billion dollars. • Boston elevated a sewage treatment plant to keep it from being flooded when sea level rises. New York City is looking at similar maneuvers for water plants. • Engineers are installing “thermal siphons” along the oil pipeline in Alaska to draw heat away from the ground. • Singapore plans to cut its flood-prone areas in half by 2011 by widening and deepening drains and canals and completing a $226 million dam at the mouth of the city's main river. • Desperately poor Bangladesh is spending more than $50 million on adaptation. It is trying to fend off the sea with flood control and buildings on stilts. As for helping plants and animals, British climate scientist Martin Parry said the world will have to create a triage system to figure out which living things can be saved, which can't and are effectively goners, and which don't need immediate help. And what about people? Some islands, such as the Maldives, and some coastal cities will not be able to survive rising seas, said Saleemel Huq, a senior fellow at IIED. In those cases, the world will need “planned relocation” of people and cities.
