Think of a penguin living in a freezer! Adaptation refers to the changes living organisms (including us!) make to deal with new conditions, especially those caused by climate change.

• Simple Definition: Adjusting to new environmental conditions to reduce negative impacts and seize the benefits!

• Flooding: Imagine a bathtub overflowing with water.
  • Solution: Create better flood defenses, like walls and barriers.
• Disease Spread: Ever heard of the flu traveling around school? Well, diseases like malaria might travel even further as the world gets warmer!
  • Solution: More widespread vaccination programs.
• Water Shortages: It's like your water bottle running out on a hot day.
  • Solution: Build desalination plants to get fresh water from the sea.
• Shifting Crop Climates: It’s like trying to grow ice cream in the desert. Some places become too hot or dry for the usual crops.
  • Solution: Plant crops in new areas and develop varieties that can handle the heat and irregular water supplies.

• Mitigation: Trying to reduce or prevent the issue (like turning off the tap so the tub doesn’t overflow).
  • Examples: Increasing energy efficiency, using low-carbon electricity, and switching fuels (e.g., electrifying buildings and cars).
• Adaptation: Adjusting to the issue (like using a mop to clean up the water after the tub overflows).
  • Even if we mitigate, CO2 will keep increasing for a while and the ocean’s gonna heat up adding about 0.6°C to our global thermostat. So, we gotta adapt too!