Sink or Swim How the World Needs to Adapt to a Changing Climate

About this book

How the world needs to adapt to climate change, and the key problems and hard choices that lie ahead for the global community.

Heatwaves, wildfires, hurricanes and flooding caused by climate change are already impacting people and nature. Adaptation until now has been incremental with governments and institutions tinkering around the edges of current systems. This will not be enough. Sink or Swim explores the hard choices that lie ahead concerning how people earn a living, the way governments manage relationships between countries, and how communities accommodate the movement of people. Should people be encouraged to move away from the coast? How can global food supplies be managed when parts of the world are hit by simultaneous droughts? How can conflict be handled when there isn't enough water?

Drawing on cutting edge research, interviews with experts, and practical examples from across the world Susannah Fisher tells the story of the tough choices on adaptation and ways we can still have a liveable planet in the 21st century and beyond. Will we choose to sink or swim?

Contents

1. Fiddling as the World Burns
2. A Narrow Window of Opportunity
3. The Story of Adaptation so Far
4. Not Fast or Fast enough
5. People on the Move
6. Food Justice
7. Risking Nature
8. Fighting Fire
9. Sitting in Boiling Water
10. Starting to Swim

Customer Reviews

Biography

Susannah Fisher is a Principal Research Fellow at University College London and works as a researcher and advisor supporting governments, cities, climate funds and communities adapt to climate change.