| Towards a tipping point in responding to change: rising costs, fewer options for arctic and global societies. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 22270706 Owner: NLM Status: In-Data-Review |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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Climate change incurs costs, but government adaptation budgets are limited. Beyond a certain point, individuals must bear the costs or adapt to new circumstances, creating political-economic tipping points that we explore in three examples. First, many Alaska Native villages are threatened by erosion, but relocation is expensive. To date, critically threatened villages have not yet been relocated, suggesting that we may already have reached a political-economic tipping point. Second, forest fires shape landscape and ecological characteristics in interior Alaska. Climate-driven changes in fire regime require increased fire-fighting resources to maintain current patterns of vegetation and land use, but these resources appear to be less and less available, indicating an approaching tipping point. Third, rapid sea level rise, for example from accelerated melting of the Greenland ice sheet, will create a choice between protection and abandonment for coastal regions throughout the world, a potential global tipping point comparable to those now faced by Arctic communities. The examples illustrate the basic idea that if costs of response increase more quickly than available resources, then society has fewer and fewer options as time passes. |
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Authors:
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Henry P Huntington; Eban Goodstein; Eugénie Euskirchen |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Ambio Volume: 41 ISSN: 0044-7447 ISO Abbreviation: Ambio Publication Date: 2012 Feb |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2012-01-24 Completed Date: - Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 0364220 Medline TA: Ambio Country: Sweden |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 66-74 Citation Subset: IM |
Affiliation:
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Pew Environment Group, 23834 The Clearing Dr, Eagle River, AK, 99577, USA, hhuntington@pewtrusts.org. |
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From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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