Adaptation and Mitigation
Ways to Address Climate Change
What is Mitigation?
 To prevent the worsening of destruction
 To decrease force or intensity. To lower risk.
 Earthquake mitigation
 Build buildings to withstand shaking better
 Flood mitigation
 Build dams to hold back overflowing rivers
 Climate change mitigation
 Reduce carbon dioxide emissions
What is Adaptation?
 Reacting or changing to fit the new circumstance
 Coping with impacts that cannot be avoided
Examples:
 farmers planting different crops for different
seasons
 wildlife migrating to more suitable habitats as the
seasons change.
 Building levees against sea level rise
A clever colleague once said
"Mitigation helps us avoid the
unmanageable, while
adaptation helps us manage
the unavoidable."