A Brief History of Climate Ready Missoula
What is Climate Ready Missoula? |
Why is this effort important? |
Since the summer of 2018, Missoula County, Climate Smart Missoula, and the City of Missoula have been jointly leading a climate resiliency planning process called Climate Ready Missoula: Building Resiliency in Missoula County. It has been developed with the participation of hundreds of local organizations and individuals via two large stakeholder workshops, online surveys, and numerous public meetings. Climate Ready Missoula was inspired by the Climate Ready Communities program developed by the Geos Institute. Together with our steering committee, we have developed a Climate and Community Primer, wrote a Vulnerability Assessment, and generated resilience goals and strategies to address those vulnerabilities. As of May 2020, Climate Ready Missoula plan is an issue plan of the Missoula County Growth Policy and an issue plan of the Our Missoula: City Growth Policy 2035.
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While climate change is a global challenge, its impacts are experienced at the local level, and it falls to local communities to address them. According to the Montana Climate Assessment, the impacts of climate change in Missoula County will include hotter, drier summers; warmer, wetter winters and springs; and more frequent and intense floods, droughts, and wildfires. We are already seeing climate impacts in our region. The earlier that we understand and prepare for these changes, the greater our chances of mitigating their impacts on human health and safety, the natural environment, and our local economy.
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Adaptation and Mitigation: What are they and what's the difference?
Efforts to address climate change fall into two main categories: mitigation, which involves reducing the carbon pollution that is changing our climate; and adaptation, which involves addressing the impacts of climate change that we are already experiencing and preparing for the projected changes to come. Mitigation addresses the problem at its root, while adaptation addresses its effects. Given that our climate is already changing, both mitigation and adaptation are essential and urgent. Neither is sufficient on its own.
Another way to remember it is, adaptation manages the unavoidable, and mitigation avoids the unmanageable.
The focus of Climate Ready Missoula is adaptation, not mitigation. In addition to building our resilience in the face of climate change, adaptation makes good economic sense. Indeed, studies have shown that every $1 spent on climate adaptation will save between $2 and $10 in the future.
However, the fact that Climate Ready Missoula is focused on adaptation should not be interpreted to mean that we have given up on mitigation, or that adaptation is more important. Both are essential. As the locally-specific climate projections presented in this plan make clear, the more quickly we reduce global carbon emissions, the less severe the changes we will experience here, and the more manageable the task of adaptation will be. We cannot adapt our way out of this. We must also do our part to address the root of the problem by reducing carbon emissions.
Another way to remember it is, adaptation manages the unavoidable, and mitigation avoids the unmanageable.
The focus of Climate Ready Missoula is adaptation, not mitigation. In addition to building our resilience in the face of climate change, adaptation makes good economic sense. Indeed, studies have shown that every $1 spent on climate adaptation will save between $2 and $10 in the future.
However, the fact that Climate Ready Missoula is focused on adaptation should not be interpreted to mean that we have given up on mitigation, or that adaptation is more important. Both are essential. As the locally-specific climate projections presented in this plan make clear, the more quickly we reduce global carbon emissions, the less severe the changes we will experience here, and the more manageable the task of adaptation will be. We cannot adapt our way out of this. We must also do our part to address the root of the problem by reducing carbon emissions.