Adaptation 2016
Climate change is already affecting earth’s ecosystems and the welfare of the billions that depend on them. Even assuming focused, deliberate efforts to aggressively reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and reverse the course on a global economy dominated by fossil fuels, we have already committed our planet to a certain level of climate change. We will need to adapt to those aspects of climate change that are irreversible in the short term.
Climate change is a global problem whose challenges will be met at the local and regional level. Scientists have predicted its impacts to include changes in precipitation, heat waves, increased magnitude of extreme weather events and disaster intensity, increased flooding, reduced fresh water resources, sea level rise, changes in disease patterns, and more. Even if we were able to aggressively reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, mean sea levels may rise between 26-54 cm by 2100 under conservative scenarios, and most projections are higher (IPCC, 2013). Mean global surface temperature is likely to increase by 2-5 degrees Celsius, causing an acceleration of the hydrologic cycle and an exacerbation of precipitation extremes. The impacts of climate change will increasingly affect plant, animal and human life. This contest seeks to explore innovative institutional, educational, financial, and other means by which we can increase global and local preparedness for climate change on both domestic and international scales.