Adapting to Climate Change
Thresholds, Values, Governance

This presents top scientific research by leading researchers and practitioners on the critical issue of adapting to climate change.

Adapting to climate change is a critical problem facing humanity. This involves reconsidering our lifestyles, and is linked to our actions as individuals, societies and governments. This book presents top science and social science research on whether the world can adapt to climate change. Written by experts, both academics and practitioners, it examines the risks to ecosystems, demonstrating how values, culture and the constraining forces of governance act as barriers to action. As a review of science and a holistic assessment of adaptation options, it is essential reading for those concerned with responses to climate change, especially researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and graduate students. Significant features include historical, contemporary, and future insights into adaptation to climate change; coverage of adaptation issues from different perspectives: climate science, hydrology, engineering, ecology, economics, human geography, anthropology and political science; and contributions from leading researchers and practitioners from around the world.

Introduction
1. Adaptation now W. Neil Adger, Irene Lorenzoni and Karen O'Brien
Part I. Adapting to Thresholds in Physical and Ecological Systems: 2. Ecological limits of adaptation to climate change Garry Peterson
3. Adapting to the effects of climate change on water supply reliability Nigel W. Arnell and Matt Charlton
4. Protecting London from tidal flooding: limits to engineering adaptation Tim Reeder, Jon Wicks, Luke Lovell and Owen Tarrant
5. Climate prediction: a limit to adaptation? Suraje Dessai, Mike Hulme, Robert Lempert and Roger Pielke, Jr.
6. Learning to crawl: how to use seasonal climate forecasts to build adaptive capacity Anthony G. Patt
7. Norse Greenland settlement and limits to adaptation Andrew J. Dugmore, Christian Keller, Thomas H. McGovern, Andrew F. Casely and Konrad Smiarowski
8. Sea ice change in Arctic Canada: are there limits to Inuit adaptation? James D. Ford
Part II. The Role of Value and Culture in Adaptation: 9. The past, present and some possible futures of adaptation Ben Orlove
10. Do values subjectively define the limits to climate change adaptation? Karen O'Brien
11. Conceptual and practical barriers to adaptation: vulnerability and responses to heat waves in the UK Johanna Wolf, Irene Lorenzoni, Roger Few, Vanessa Abrahamson and Rosalind Raine
12. Values and cost-benefit analysis: economic efficiency criteria in adaptation Alistair Hunt and Tim Taylor
13. Hidden costs and disparate uncertainties: trade-offs in approaches to climate policy Hallie Eakin, Emma L. Tompkins, Donald R. Nelson and John M. Anderies
14. Community based adaptation and culture in theory and practice Jonathan Ensor and Rachel Berger
15. Exploring the invisibility of local knowledge in decision-making: the Boscastle harbour flood disaster Tori L. Jennings
16. Adaptation and conflict within fisheries: insights for living with climate change Sarah Coulthard
17. Exploring cultural dimensions of adaptation to climate change Thomas Heyd and Nick Brooks
18. Adapting to an uncertain climate on the great plains: testing hypotheses on historical populations Roberta Balstad, Roly Russell, Vladimir Gil and Sabine Marx
19. Climate change and adaptive human migration: lessons from rural North America Robert McLeman
Part III. Governance, Knowledge and Technologies for Adaptation: 20. Are our levers long and our fulcra strong enough? Exploring the soft underbelly of adaptation decisions and actions Susanne C. Moser
21. Decentralized planning and climate adaptation: toward transparent governance Timothy J. Finan and Donald R. Nelson
22. Climate adaptation, local institutions and rural livelihoods Arun Agrawal and Nicolas Perrin
23. Adaptive governance for a changing coastline: science, policy and publics in search of a sustainable future Sophie Nicholson-Cole and Tim O'Riordan
24. Climate change, international cooperation and adaptation in transboundary water management Alena Drieschova, Mark Giordano and Itay Fischhendler
25. Decentralization: a window of opportunity for successful adaptation to climate change? Maria Brockhaus and Hermann Kambire
26. Adapting to climate change: the nation-state as problem and solution Erik S. Reinert, Iulie Aslaksen, Inger Marie G. Eira, Svein D. Mathiesen, Hugo Reinert and Ellen Inga Turi
27. Limits to adaptation: analysing institutional constraints Tor Hakon Inderberg and Per Ove Eikeland
28. Accessing diversification, networks and traditional resource management as adaptations to climate extremes Marisa Goulden, Lars Otto N'ss, Katharine Vincent and W. Neil Adger
29. Governance limits to effective global financial support for adaptation Richard J. T. Klein and Annett Mohner
30. Organizational learning and governance in adaptation in urban development Marte Winsvold, Knut Bjorn Stokke, Jan Erling Klausen and Inger Lise Saglie
31. Conclusions: transforming the world Donald R. Nelson
Index.