![]() ![]() If countries allow greenhouse gas emissions to continue at a high rate and communities adapt only incrementally to the resulting climate change, the transformations will be mostly forced and mostly bad.įor example, a riverside town might raise its levees as spring flooding worsens. ![]() The question is what the mix of good and bad will be in those transformations. The IPCC reports make clear that the future inevitably involves more and larger climate-related transformations. As more people experience the harms of climate change firsthand, they may begin to realize that transformation is inevitable and embrace new solutions. In the past, delaying inevitable change has led to transformations that are unnecessarily harsh, such as the collapse of some 13th-century civilizations in what is now the US Southwest. ![]() This effect may be even more pronounced for larger changes. Wanting to retain things as they are - known as status quo bias - explains all sorts of individual decisions, from sticking with incumbent politicians to not enrolling in retirement or health plans even when the alternatives may be rationally better. People often resist transformation because their fear of losing what they have is more powerful than knowing they might gain something better. The industrial revolution vastly raised standards of living for many people, but it spawned inequality, social disruption and environmental destruction. Other transformations have had both good and bad effects. Residents of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati describe the changes they’re experiencing as sea level rises. Island nations like Kiribati and coastal communities, including in Louisiana and Alaska, are losing land into rising seas. For example, about half the world’s coral reef ecosystems have died because of increasing heat and acidity in the oceans. Some transformations are widely regarded as bad, including many of those connected to climate change. Fear of change can lead to worsening changeįrom the industrial revolution to the rise of social media, societies have undergone fundamental changes in how people live and understand their place in the world. That starts with embracing innovation and change. To slow climate change and adapt to the damage already underway, the world will have to shift how it generates and uses energy, transports people and goods, designs buildings and grows food. In addition to pushback from industries, people’s fear of change has helped maintain the status quo. The problem is that these solutions aren’t being deployed fast enough. ![]()
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