So how do we deal with climate change? Climate change can be dealt in two ways; mitigation or adaptation.

Let’s take a look at the differences between them.

Mitigation are actions that attempt to stop or reverse the warming of the planet. Mitigation actions typically involve taking away GHGs from the air so that the earth gets less warmer! One example is by planting trees which absorb CO2 in the air! This process is called creating carbon sinks. Forests are considered carbon sinks because they absorb CO2 from the air.

Adaptation on the other hand, means to take actions so that the impacts of climate change will be less worse. Examples of this include creating sea walls which sea water from rising and coming into the land.

The important question now is; which one is better? Should we just mitigate or should only adapt? Often times it’s better to have both, but depending on the country we’re talking, some country’s may not be able to afford adaptation actions. Worse of all, they may even produce less emissions, but suffer climate change impacts because of the GHGs of other countries.

In the next lessons, we’ll take a closer look at what mitigation and adaptation actions can be taken.