Towards a Tipping Point in Responding to Change: Rising Costs,Fewer Options for Arctic and Global Societies |
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Authors: | Henry P Huntington Eban Goodstein Eugénie Euskirchen |
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Institution: | (1) Pew Environment Group, 23834 The Clearing Dr, Eagle River, AK 99577, USA;(2) Bard Center for Environmental Policy, Bard College, PO Box 5000, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000, USA;(3) Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, P.O. Box 757000, Fairbanks, AK 99775-7000, USA |
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Abstract: | 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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Keywords: | Climate change costs Prevention Response Politics Economics Village relocation Forest fires Sea level rise Arctic |
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