Imagine you’re the captain of a sailboat cruising through ocean waters. The crew notices that water has started seeping through holes in your boat, but you still have options since they caught it early. You could identify the leaks and patch them, then pump out the water already aboard, or you could turn your boat around and head for shore. Regardless, it would make sense to have everyone put on their rubber boots to keep their feet dry.

Mitigation vs. adaptation

Although few of us will captain a sinking ship, we all live in a world confronting the realities of climate change. Climate change is the long-term heating of the Earth’s climate due to human activities, particularly the emission of greenhouse gases. It can happen naturally or in response to human activities, such as burning fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are natural fuels that form over long periods of time like oil, gas, and coal. Burning these fuels creates greenhouse gases, which trap heat at the Earth’s surface and cause global temperatures to rise.

Facing these problems might feel overwhelming, but many different solutions are available. Some solutions, such as preventing water from leaking into your ship, aim to lessen or mitigate the problem. Climate change mitigation is how we reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, thereby slowing and limiting climate change. This process is also commonly called decarbonization. Climate change adaptation is how we respond to climate change to reduce its impact on people, places, and ecosystems.

Climate change mitigation strategies focus on one of two goals: reducing the amount of greenhouse gases we put into the atmosphere or collecting and storing greenhouse gases elsewhere. Greenhouse gases can be stored through natural sinks or carbon capture technology. Mitigation solutions also include using renewable energy and electric cars. Furthermore, mitigation strategies are at the heart of the most well-known goals surrounding climate change. One example is the international effort to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming, as set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

However, you might not have heard much about climate change adaptation strategies. Adaptation strategies are often specific to local regions and communities. That’s because every region faces unique environmental conditions and climate change effects, and every community has different available resources. Adaptation strategies are primarily focused on one or more of the following goals:

1. Reducing vulnerability—The level of community exposure and sensitivity to a disaster. For example, a community encountering sea-level rise could restore coastal wetlands. These wetlands could act as a buffer to storms, reducing vulnerability.
2. Increasing resilience—The capacity of a community to keep functioning during a disaster. Many strategies that reduce vulnerability also increase resilience. For example, a community facing sea-level rise could relocate its critical infrastructure (such as power plants and roads) to higher ground to increase resilience.
3. Expanding adaptive capacity—The technical and social skills that help a community respond to a disaster. Communities facing sea-level rise could train people to protect their homes from intense flooding or evacuate safely when necessary. Steps such as these would expand adaptive capacity.

Adaptation might mean building flood-resistant buildings in areas facing increased flood risk. It might also mean expanding access to air conditioners to deal with extreme heat. Communities might improve forest management, develop drought-resistant crops, or even migrate away from frequent disaster zones.

Where do mitigation and adaptation meet?

While mitigation and adaptation address climate change quite differently, they do overlap. Of course, how much adaptation is needed depends on how much mitigation we can achieve. Some options are also helpful for both mitigation and adaptation.

For instance, wetland restoration is the process of reintroducing wetland habitats. Wetland restoration can be a form of mitigation since wetlands act as natural carbon sinks. They pull large amounts of carbon dioxide out of the air and can store it. But wetland restoration can also be a form of adaptation, as wetlands reduce the intensity and impact of storms and hurricanes that pass over them.

Some adaptation strategies might counteract mitigation efforts and vice versa. One example is that in responding to more extreme temperatures, many regions will expand their use of cooling systems like air conditioners. Many places are already just too hot for people to survive without them. But using more air conditioners means using more electricity, and far too much of our electricity still comes from burning fossil fuels. Mitigation and adaptation strategies are often closely interconnected.

Adaptation, mitigation, or both?

So, should we use our energy to adapt to the effects of climate change, or should we focus our efforts on mitigation to reduce emissions as quickly as possible? Well, the reality is that we need to do both.

There is no one climate change “switch” that we can turn on or off. Climate change happens on a spectrum, and there’s a big difference in the extent of climate change. For example, the world looks much different at 1.5 degrees C of warming versus 2 degrees C and beyond. At 1.5 degrees C of warming, 14 percent of the world’s population will face a severe heatwave every five years. At 2 degrees C of warming, that percentage more than doubles to 37 percent of the world population. At 1.5 degrees C of warming, the average drought length will be around two months— at 2 degrees C, it is four months. These differences will determine whether individual people, communities, and ecosystems can recover.

The more we can mitigate emissions now, the fewer drastic measures we will need to take to adapt to a changing climate. But we can’t focus exclusively on mitigation because we’re seeing the impact of climate change across the globe. From increased storm frequency and severity to drought and flooding, these consequences are being felt right now—we can’t wait for mitigation to be implemented. Communities also need access to adaptation strategies.

We are also seeing that climate change does not affect us all equally. Those hit hardest by the effects of climate change are often those who have contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions. Adaptation solutions are needed not only on a practical level but also on a moral level. If we were to focus exclusively on mitigation solutions and delay working on adaptation, the most vulnerable among us would be experiencing the worst climate change effects on their own. This would be both an injustice and a poor plan for long-term success.

As the captain of a leaking ship, you need to focus on addressing the cause of the problem, the hole in the ship, and preparing for its long-term effects. The same is true for addressing climate change. We must pursue mitigation and adaptation solutions and understand how they are connected to create a strong, sustainable, and fair future.