WHAT IS CLIMATE RESILIENCE?
CLIMATE RESILIENCE 101
Climate resilience encompasses a broad range of strategies and concepts aimed at strengthening our ability to withstand, adapt to, and recover from the impacts of climate change. Central to this is the understanding of climate itself, and how an area’s climate contrasts with its day-to-day weather variations.
Climate resilience involves recognizing and responding to the effects of global climate change, a largely human-driven phenomenon. Within the umbrella of climate resilience, there are several key concepts, including an important focus on building resilient microclimates.
Climate resilience strategies form a comprehensive approach to not only cope with the present challenges of a changing climate but also to proactively shape a sustainable and resilient future.
In Climate Resilience 101, we’ll dig into these strategies and much more, so buckle up — there’s increasingly rough air!
WEATHER v. CLIMATE
In order to understand climate resilience, we must first understand the difference between climate and its close relative,
weather – this is perhaps the most common sticking point in the discourse surrounding climate change.
At its most basic, weather is a short-term situation, while climate is a long-term pattern. Let’s break that down a bit further.
Weather is the short-term state of the atmosphere, including temperature, humidity, precipitation, and visibility.
Weather can be thought of as what you experience day-to-day — all the fleeting conditions of the atmosphere at a specific time and place. This includes things like rain, sunshine, wind, snow, and thunderstorms.
Weather is what you look at each morning to decide whether you need an umbrella or a jacket for the day. It's variable and changes frequently.
Climate, on the other hand, is the long-term average of the weather over a significant period of time (usually at least 30 years) in a specific area.
Data about an area’s climate tells us what the weather tends to be like in a particular place. For example, the Sahara Desert has a hot and dry climate, meaning it's generally hot and doesn't get much rain year-round.
The climate gives you an overall idea of what to expect in a region, but doesn't necessarily predict that area’s specific daily weather conditions.
Weather dictates whether you carry an umbrella today.
Climate tells you what types of clothes to keep in your wardrobe year-round.
WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE?
When we talk about climate change, we’re not talking about your town’s daily, weekly, or even monthly weather fluctuations – we’re referring to significant changes in the patterns of weather across the Earth over an extended period of time.
Weather fluctuations happen naturally – always have and always will – but the long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns that we refer to when we speak of climate change paint a bigger picture that includes a range of impacts on the planet. Extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and adverse effects on ecosystems merely scratch the surface.
Here are five key things to understand about climate change:
HOW CAN WE HANDLE CLIMATE CHANGE?
There are several different ways of addressing climate change, and the dire situation we find ourselves in requires us to employ each. While our primary focus is on climate resilience, we must take a holistic view and understand how climate resilience relates to two other distinct (but often overlapping) strategies – climate adaptation and climate mitigation.
Climate Adaptation
Climate adaptation describes the actions we take to adjust to the current and/or anticipated effects of climate change — encompassing both reactive and proactive strategies.
In simpler terms, climate adaptation is like preparing for a rainy day. If you know it's going to rain, you carry an umbrella (or if you’re a stubborn PNW resident, you simply wear a rain jacket and embrace the dampness).
In the context of climate change, adaptation may involve building higher seawalls in coastal areas to protect against rising sea levels, developing drought-resistant crops in areas where water scarcity is becoming a problem, or restoring or enhancing wetlands to mitigate floods, droughts, heat, and fire.
Climate Mitigation
Like turning off a tap to stop a flood, rather than dealing with the water that has already spilled out, climate mitigation aims to reduce the causes of climate change before they spiral out of control.
Examples of climate mitigation include transitioning to renewable energy sources like solar or wind power instead of burning fossil fuels, or enhancing a wetland to absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
While climate adaptation is about coping with existing changes and minimizing damage, climate mitigation focuses on preventing or reducing the causes of climate change in the first place.
Climate Resilience
Climate resilience is our main focus at Wetland Wild. It’s an important concept in the context of dealing with climate change, distinct from both adaptation and mitigation, though it overlaps with them in some ways.
Climate resilience refers to the ability of a system, community, or society to withstand, recover from, and adapt to the various impacts of climate change. High climate resilience means being strong and flexible enough to handle the effects of climate change, from extreme weather events like hurricanes and floods, to longer-term shifts like rising temperatures and sea levels.
The goal of building climate resilience is to be ready and able to handle the changes and challenges brought about by climate change. Climate resilience can be thought of as weather-proofing your home, but on a much bigger scale. It involves making sure our communities can withstand extreme weather like floods, heatwaves, droughts, and fires. If we’re climate resilient, we’re managing our natural environments in a way that mitigates these effects rather than exacerbating them.
WHAT SETS CLIMATE RESILIENCE APART FROM CLIMATE ADAPTATION & CLIMATE MITIGATION?
Adaptation v. Resilience
While climate adaptation involves systematic adjustments to deal with the impacts of climate change, resilience is broader.
Climate resilience includes not only adapting to changes but also being able to recover quickly from climate-related shocks.
A city that builds flood defenses such as sea walls is adapting, but if it also has plans and resources in place to quickly rebuild and support people after a flood, it's showing resilience.
Mitigation v. Resilience
Climate mitigation directly addresses the causes of climate change, primarily by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate resilience, on the other hand, deals with the effects of climate change, regardless of their specific causes.
For example, switching to renewable energy is mitigation, but ensuring that an energy system can continue to operate during extreme weather events is a matter of resilience.
In a nutshell, climate resilience encompasses a wide range of preparations and responses, covering not only the ability to adapt to climate change and mitigate its impacts, but also to recover from whatever impacts of climate change still persist in a manner that’s both efficient and effective.
Climate resilience involves building systems and communities that are robust enough to handle the challenges posed by climate change, both now and in the future.
THE MICRO PERSPECTIVE
By now we know that when we speak of climate, we’re referring to an area’s average weather conditions over a long period of time. That area could be a city, a country, or even a larger geographical area like the Mojave desert, the Amazon rainforest, or the vast tundra of Northern Canada. Climate data about each of those areas gives us a general idea of what the weather is usually like in that region, including typical temperatures, rainfall, and wind patterns.
But within those areas, there may be small pockets where the conditions are a bit… different. These pockets are microclimates.
A microclimate is the climate of a very small or specific place, distinct from the area around it – perhaps a small garden in a city, a valley between mountains, or even a specific side of a building.
These places can have unusual conditions compared to the general climate of the larger area. For example, Central Park is cooler than the rest of New York City’s, since there are plenty of trees, grassy lawns, and small lakes, rather than the city’s typical jungle of concrete and metal. The southern slope of a mountain often receives more sun, making it warmer than the northern side.
Microclimates are influenced by many factors, including things like altitude, the amount of sunlight an area gets, the presence of water bodies, and human-made structures.
The Importance of Microclimate Resilience
The main difference between a microclimate and climate is scale.
The term microclimate refers to the specific, often small-scale environmental conditions in a particular place, while climate refers to the broader, long-term weather patterns of a larger area. Microclimates can vary greatly over short distances, while the climate is the overall larger weather pattern of an area. For instance, the climate of a country may be described as temperate, but within this country, there could be numerous microclimates – for instance, a forest that’s cooler than other spots because lots of trees provide lots of shade, or a wide plain that stays warmer than its surrounding hills because the sun beats down on it all day.
Microclimate resilience is a crucial concept in the broader context of climate resilience, specifically referring to the capacity of small-scale, localized environments to withstand and adapt to the impacts of climate change. This approach emphasizes starting at the hyper-local level (such as your backyard), where tangible and practical solutions can have immediate and significant effects.
Climate resilience and microclimate resilience are related concepts, but they operate at different scales and in different contexts.
Both are crucial in the fight against climate change. While broad strategies help in global and regional mitigation and adaptation, microclimate strategies are vital for addressing local variations and ensuring that smaller communities, ecosystems, or specific areas can thrive in the face of changing climatic conditions.
In the pursuit of microclimate resilience, the focus is on adapting and modifying local environments to better manage climate-related stresses. This could involve strategies such as improving urban design to regulate temperatures.
In its quest to keep residents cool, city officials might create shaded walkways or mandate the use of reflective materials in construction to reduce heat absorption. They may also choose to enhance green spaces, since parks and gardens not only provide cooling effects but also improve air quality and biodiversity. When we focus on building microclimate resilience, we aim to create urban environments that are not just resistant to climate impacts but are also conducive to the health and well-being of residents.
Addressing microclimate resilience is an essential component of broader climate resilience strategies. By doing so, we can ensure that the communities where people live and work are capable of coping with and adapting to climate-related changes. This approach is integral to achieving sustainable urban development, particularly in cities facing the challenges of climate change.
Microclimate resilience also empowers individuals to contribute positively to their communities. Actions like planting shade trees, supporting the rehabilitation and/or creation of local wetlands, or voting for comprehensive environmental policies and initiatives can all play a part in enhancing the microclimate. These efforts, though locally focused, are critical pieces of the larger puzzle in building resilience against climate change.
Microclimate Resilience is the Future
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Think Globally, Act Locally
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Microclimate Resilience is the Future 🗺 Think Globally, Act Locally 🗺
BUILDING CLIMATE RESILIENCE
Climate resilience strategies vary significantly across different environments, with each set of techniques tailored to address specific challenges posed by climate change. In forested areas, management focuses on balancing fire regimes to promote ecosystem health, giving important recognition to fire's natural role. Wetlands require strategies to maintain moisture and carbon storage, preventing catastrophic fires and preserving biodiversity. The unique challenges faced by urban environments demand innovative approaches in green infrastructure, water management, and energy efficiency. Across these diverse settings, the goal is to implement proactive and environment-specific strategies to build resilience against the varying impacts of climate change.
The complexity of climate resilience lies in understanding the unique characteristics and needs of each environment, so that we can implement strategies that not only address current challenges, but also anticipate future climate conditions. This proactive and tailored approach is essential for building resilience against the escalating impacts of climate change across diverse settings.
Forest Management Strategies
For forests, poor management practices – such as the suppression of all fires – have led to a significant buildup of fuel, increasing the risk of high-intensity megafires. This approach, which began in the early 20th century, aimed at suppressing fires to protect timber supplies. Unfortunately, fire suppression led to the accumulation of dead plant matter and understory growth.
Fire is a natural and necessary part of many ecosystems, helping to clear out dead material and allowing not only economically important tree species to grow with less competition, but leading to a much healthier ecosystem overall. Low intensity fires leave charcoal behind rather than just pure ash. This charcoal is what we emulate when we make biochar to use as a soil amendment.
Native Americans historically used fire to manage woodlands, but this knowledge was largely ignored by European settlers. It wasn't until the late 20th century that the U.S. Forest Service shifted its policy, recognizing the ecological benefits of fire and implementing more balanced fire management strategies, including allowing low-intensity fires to burn under controlled conditions and conducting strategic thinning of trees.
Wetland Management Strategies
Similarly, wetlands can either be a friend or foe in the face of climate change, depending on their management.
A poorly managed wetland – especially one that either dries out due to extreme drought or is purposely drained due to outdated thinking – can become a tinderbox. Dense layers of carbon-rich plant material stored in the formerly waterlogged, but now bone-dry soil ignite easily. This leads to intense fires that are difficult to control and nearly impossible to extinguish.
If these same areas experience foggy weather, the smoke will bind to it, creating a blinding super fog and reducing visibility to less than 10 feet, causing chaos and potentially death, even far from the flames. And since wetlands store a lot of carbon, these fires release large amounts of carbon back into the atmosphere, further exacerbating climate change in a vicious cycle.
Conversely, a well-managed wetland, ideally with beaver present, retains its moisture long into the dry season, alleviating drought conditions down the watershed. This reduces the risk of a fire starting, but also acts as a natural barrier against encroaching fires. Well-managed wetlands also contribute to climate resilience by filtering and storing water during floods, storing massive amounts of carbon, and providing keystone habitat for a staggering number of diverse plant and animal species.
In essence, climate resilience requires nuanced understanding and management of natural environments. Forests and wetlands, when properly managed, can be powerful allies in mitigating the impacts of climate change, such as fires, floods, and carbon release. However, mismanagement can reverse this, where the wetland now exacerbates the very problems it would otherwise have the potential to help solve.
Urban Management Strategies
Cities have navigated through a variety of strategies in their quest to build climate resilience, experiencing both successes and setbacks. The complexities of urban environments often amplify the challenges of climate change, making resilience a critical goal.
Historically, some urban strategies have inadvertently exacerbated climate issues. One notable example is the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, a phenomenon wherein urban areas have become significantly warmer than their rural surroundings. This is primarily due to the extensive use of heat-absorbing materials like concrete and asphalt, a lack of adequate green spaces, and high energy consumption. Cities like Phoenix and Los Angeles have been notorious for high temperature spikes, partly attributed to the UHI effect.
The UHI effect not only increases the demand for air conditioning, leading to higher greenhouse gas emissions, but also poses health risks to city residents.
Cities face other problems, as well. For example, inadequate or poorly-designed drainage systems in many cities have led to severe flooding, turning streets into rivers and overwhelming infrastructure systems during extreme weather events.
But many cities are now learning from these challenges and implementing more effective climate resilience strategies. For instance, the introduction of green roofs and vertical gardens in cities like Singapore and Chicago helps to combat the UHI effect. These green spaces not only provide insulation and reduce energy consumption, but also improve air quality and offer urban biodiversity havens.
Innovations are also underway in stormwater management. In the Netherlands, Amsterdam and Rotterdam are embracing "sponge city" concepts, where permeable pavement, green roofs, and constructed wetlands are being integrated into urban landscapes. These features absorb and redirect rainfall, reducing flood risks and facilitating the reuse of water for urban greenery.
Energy efficiency is another key focus. Many cities are transitioning to renewable energy sources and implementing smart-grid technologies. This not only reduces their carbon footprint but also ensures a more resilient energy supply, less vulnerable to climate-induced disruptions.
Urban planning is increasingly relying on climate predictions, ensuring infrastructure is resilient to future conditions, not just past statistics. For instance, sea walls and flood defenses are being designed with rising sea levels in mind, and emergency response plans are becoming more sophisticated, considering the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
Urban environments are increasingly experiencing the impacts of climate change, and the strategies used to combat these impacts reflect a learning curve in building resilience. While the journey includes both missteps like the exacerbation of the Urban Heat Island effect and innovative solutions like green infrastructure and smart energy management, the evolution of urban climate resilience strategies is a testament to the dynamic and adaptive nature of cities in the face of climate change.
HOPE FOR THE BEST, PREPARE FOR THE WORST
Adapting to the escalating effects of climate change should have started long ago. But like they say about planting a tree, “the best time to do it was 20 years ago, but the next best time is today”. It’s not too late to take steps within our communities to provide a significant buffer between ourselves and the existential threats we now face.
We can’t afford to wait – climate change is happening exponentially faster and more intensely. By making our surroundings more resilient, we can better protect our homes, health, and natural environments against the harsh effects of changing weather patterns.
In simple terms, building climate resilience means preparing and adapting our world to live with the new challenges brought on by a changing climate. We must make smart changes today to protect our future.
So, what can we really do? Are there tangible, practical solutions? Yes there are — and the best place to start is in your own community. If we work to build microclimate resilience, our small, localized environments will be better able to withstand and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
In this context of microclimate resilience, a key focus is on adapting and modifying these local environments to better handle climate-related stresses. This can involve strategies like improving urban design to regulate temperatures and avoid the dreaded Urban Heat Island effect, enhancing green spaces to provide further cooling effects, and constructing buildings that are more energy-efficient and better suited to the local climate. If we work smart enough, we can create urban environments that not only withstand climate impacts but also contribute to the overall health and well-being of their residents.
Addressing microclimate resilience is increasingly recognized as an essential part of broader climate resilience efforts. By focusing on microclimate resilience, we can ensure that the communities where people live and work are capable of coping with and adapting to climate-related changes. This approach is integral to achieving sustainable urban development and enhancing the quality of life in cities facing the challenges of climate change. It’s also how even individuals can have a positive impact on their community by taking actions such as planting shade trees, volunteering with local habitat restoration or construction projects, and – we mustn’t forget – voting for forward thinking policies and initiatives.
