Limits To Adaptation

Came across an article online that detailed how humans are going to need to adapt because of glacial retreat (Orlove, 2009). Whilst many articles I have read stop at how we need to adapt this article went on to detail the problems with adaptation and gives reasons why in some instances adapting is not possible.

Keeping the tourists happy

The article outlines numerous adaptation measures that have been taken. One of which I thought particularly interesting was the removal of snow from high glaciers and moving it to lower down the mountain to ensure the continued income from tourists in the ski season. In the short run this is a clever idea, it means the continued success of a ski resort, unfortunately however the removal of snow from the top of the mountain to the bottom means that it will melt at a faster rate and will actually increase the rate of glacial retreat at the top of the mountain.  Other ski resorts create fake snow; the article mentions these but concludes that continued warming would make them entirely unviable because of the costs of using the machines. The US national ski service association offers discounts to people who purchase carbon offsets, building awareness of the issue of glacial retreat.

Limits to adaptation

In some countries adaptation is not possible, the article cites a few reasons for this one of them is the issue of responsibility. In many cases it is not clear who is responsible for the melting of the glacier. Is it national governments, private companies or the local population that is responsible? Giving responsibility to the right group of people is key in ensuring that the correct path is taken. A local group may not have the resources to deal with a problem, a private company may only have profit in mind and a national government may not see the issues in the local area; only the large scale issues.

A second issue is the fact that glacial retreat has more than one impact. It has impacts on water resources, natural hazards and cultural landscapes. Coming up with one solution that will solve all of these problems is a challenge that has to be overcome if we are to learn to adapt to changing circumstances.

My View

In my opinion the main point of this post is not about how we are adapting to glacial retreat right now but it is about the limitations and how we are going to overcome the problems in the future. There clearly are some hard issues that must be overcome if we are going to be able to adapt to the changing circumstances of glacial retreat. It may well mean prioritizing sorting out one problem above another, whether this is protecting water resources or preventing natural hazards.