This commentary originally appeared in the journal Nature, Volume 350, pp.
649-652, 25 April 1991.
URL: http://phe.rockefeller.edu/DCSM/
Keywords: climate adaptation, climate impact.
Does Climate Still Matter?
We may be discovering climate as it becomes less important to
well-being. A range of technologies appears to have lessened the
vulnerability of human societies to climate variation.
Amidst widespread agreement that the planet is committed to at
least some climatic change induced by human activity, there is
growing pressure to "slow the greenhouse express" (ref. 1). Here I
examine climate through the lens of technology and innovation, to
clarify what adaptations have succeeded and the trends in
vulnerability to climate. I also examine whether the greenhouse
effect by itself will call into play new technologies, or whether
the evolution of technology will largely be ‘business as usual’
regardless of climate change. Finally, I identify some ways that
government may assist adaptation.
My focus is on adaptability of human systems, including
agriculture. Adaptability of ecosystems and the ethics of human
behaviour that brings about large scale transformations of the
Earth must also be considered in balancing responses to the
greenhouse issue.
What are often labeled adaptive measures are themselves the
impacts of climatic change. Innumerable adaptations in food,
clothing and shelter are responses to the spatial and temporal
variability of climate. Humans do not wait guilelessly to receive
an impact, bear the loss, then respond with an adaptation. Rather
they attempt to anticipate and forstall problems.
Innovations
Technical innovations relevant to climate and their diffusion
occur in all societies and sectors and in many forms. Technology
includes both hardware (for example, materials, physical
structures, devices and machines) and software (rules and recipes
for behaviour).
Illustrative innovations of hardware are cisterns and dams to
store water, tractors to speed rapid harvests, and new crop
cultivars to reduce susceptibility to drought. Perhaps less
obvious, but of great importance for adaptation to climate, are
information technologies. In the United States, during several
years in the 1980s sales of information technologies to the
agricultural sector were comparable to sales of farm equipment. The
long history of software innovations includes tide tables,
irrigation scheduling, and weather forecasts. Along with the
readily classified hardware and software are climate related
behavioural, social and institutional innovations, such as
agricultural credit banks, national parks, green political parties
and flood insurance.
Software and social innovations are al most always indispensable
for the technology of new hardware. Major innovations, in
transportation for example, are in fact clusters of innovations
involving not only new materials and physical processes but also
new forms of social organization, including financing and
management. Transportation systems exemplify technology that has
been important in adaptation to climate through expanding the
availability of food from a local to a global scale. Reliance on
food from afar not only diversifies diet, but also spreads
production risks across more climatic zones.
Early communities drew the bulk of their food from small areas.
One of the earliest city states, Uruk in Mesopotamia, probably grew
most of its sustenance except for animals within 20 kilometres of
the city walls2. Two millennia later, Greece and Rome
obtained most of their food from overseas colonies across the
Aegean and Mediterranean seas3. At its height, Rome
acquired 200,000 tons of grain annually for its one million
inhabitants, most of it shipped from Africa, Sardinia and Sicily.
What marine transportation did in the classical world, the steam
locomotive did in the nineteenth century, halving the cost of land
transport. The railroads penetrated the great land masses of North
America and Australasia. Their operations were little affected by
climate, topography or other local conditions. Great parts of the
new worlds were dedicated to cultivation of single crops to supply
world markets and to smooth availability through the year.
Technological inventions and innovations that have had roles in
human ability to adapt to climate over the last 100 years or so
range widely4: food preservatives (1873) to over come
problems of seasonal food production; light bulbs (1879) to make
work safe and effective indoors; aluminum (1887) and other
structural materials to resist environmental deterioration;
refrigeration (1895) and air conditioning (1902, 1906) to
facilitate activity in hot seasons and locations; automobiles
(1890s) to provide personal transportation that is much less
sensitive to climate than horses or pedal bicycles; mechanical wind
shield wipers (1916) to see in the rain; anti freeze (ethylene
glycol) (1929) to safeguard motors in winter; frozen food (first
sales, 1930) to diversify diet among regions and seasons;
radio-beam navigation (1934) to fly in poor visibility; and weather
(1960) and Earth resources (1972) satellites for analysis and
forecasts of weather and climate.
In many respects we seem to be ‘climate proofing’ society,
making ourselves less subject to natural phenomena. For centuries
and millennia we relied mainly on behavioural and social
adaptation. We took siestas when the sun was high and sought refuge
in hill stations in the monsoon season. Large pastoral and nomadic
populations followed the seasonal availability of resources and
avoided climatic stresses. Much of the planet remained seasonally
or entirely uninhabitable for climatic reasons. With current
technology many people can live in virtually any climate that now
exists. Modern water supply and heating and ventilation systems,
along with medicines (for example, quinine and vaccines) and public
health measures, have enabled large populations to inhabit formerly
uninhabitable regions. By 1980 the population in semiarid, desert
and mountain regions had passed 35 million or 15 per cent of the US
population5. Lacking modern technology, these zones
accomodated less than one per cent of the population in 1860 and
six per cent in 1920.
Preferences
The ability to colonize almost the entire planet is due to the
human ability to carry with us that particular range of environment
in which we can survive and prosper6. In wealthier
societies, preferences are shifting toward hot and dry climates
that were forbid ding a century ago. Evidence of lessening human
vulnerability is also found in health. For example, a flattening of
monthly rates of total mortality in Japan between 1899 and 1973 is
explained partly by diminution of the previous, climatically driven
seasonal peaks7.
Production can now proceed more or less continuously in severe
environments. For example, North Sea offshore oil platforms operate
24 hours per day, 365 days per year. At a price, services, such as
aviation, are now available at almost all times and places.
Aviation began as a system that was extremely sensitive to weather
and is increasingly less so, due to expanded range; avionics, radar
and guidance systems; understanding of thunderstorms, wind shear,
and other weather phenomena; and changes in construction materials.
Crops and livestock can now be produced ‘indoors’ protected from
the elements. In some cases, alternatives to outdoor production are
so advantageous that a crop is displaced. Originally spurred by the
need for supplies in wartime, synthetic rubber from petrochemical
feedstocks, which is not subject to the vagaries of pests, droughts
and floods, and other risks out doors, has overwhelmed natural
rubber from trees. In 1990, ten per cent of US fish production was
in the controlled environment of fish farms8, up from
one per cent in 1980 and projected to reach 20 per cent in
2000.
Consumption is also insulating itself from environment. Inside
most shopping malls, for example, only fashions or decorations
signal the season. Sports are increasingly played in domed stadiums
isolated from the weather. In affluent societies, winter vacations
in warm climates have become a popular adaptation to escape
climatic impacts.
Forecasting is itself a key technology that reduces
vulnerability to weather and hence climate. Forecasts can help
accommodate peak loads in electric power systems during heat waves.
Improved forecasting, in conjunction with increased incomes and
better transportation, has also enabled more people to enjoy
recreation in all seasons.
Synchronicity
The decline of ‘synchronicity’, the naturally enforced time
regimen of social groups, is a feature of life in advanced
societies. In agricultural societies, the rhythm of life is
strongly determined and coordinated for al most all by the seasons
and the associated demands for labour in the field. In advanced
economies, where both production and consumption may proceed almost
continuously and only about five per cent of the population farms,
weather and climate no longer control schedules. The fact that the
peak season for holidays in advanced societies is the late summer,
a peak season for labour in agricultural societies, indicates the
transformation that has taken place.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s a group of US researchers
explored the ‘lessening’ hypothesis of climate impacts9,
which states that persistent and adaptive societies, through their
technological and social organization, lessen the impacts of
recurrent climatic fluctuations of similar magnitude upon the
directly susceptible population and indirectly lessen the impacts
on the entire society. In the cases studied, substantial evidence
was found to support the hypothesis of lessening impacts. For
example, in the US Great Plains, the most severe disruptions to
livelihood and health occurred during the earliest periods, when
incidences of malnutrition and starvation were recorded.
Investigation of the more recent periods showed much smaller
impacts for comparable drought stress, because of a variety of
adjustments and strategies, including more extensive and effective
anticipatory action.
An alternative to the lessening hypothesis is that increasingly
elaborate technical and social systems insulate us from the adverse
effects of recurrent climatic fluctuation at the cost of increased
vulnerability to catastrophe from less frequent natural and social
perturbations. In a global economy, such vulnerability might be
devolved or shared ever more widely. Presumably this vulnerability
to catastrophe, surprise or nonlinear effects is what worries many
about the greenhouse effect. But the evidence seems to weigh
against the suggestion that technology, lifestyles and other forces
are creating a more ‘brittle’ system in the face of climate
change.
Society appears to proceed along ‘technological trajectories’
that enable, for example, more travel, more financial transactions,
and more messages. The succession of technologies that make
possible this increased activity appears to diminish in sensitivity
to climate. Although it was usually true that neither rain nor
sleet stayed the American postman from his rounds, no system of
postmen could be as faithful as the modern telecommunications
system that now carries a much larger share of messages than the
old system of letters. Similarly, a system of energy from wood and
hay was more climatically sensitive than one reliant on oil and
natural gas. Water and wind power are, of course, more sensitive to
climate. In the late eleventh century, the areas under Norman rule
in England had about one water mill for every 50
households10, providing power to grind grains, work
metal, weave textiles and cut wood. In 1694 France had 80,000 flour
mills, 15,000 industrial mills, and 500 iron and metallurgical
works, altogether almost 100,000 facilities powered by wind and
water. Although such an industrial infra structure is tightly
adapted using climatic resources, it is also vulnerable to climate
variability and change.
The trend toward less climatic vulnerability also exists in
transportation. Well into the nineteenth century, sailing vessels
were the preferred long-distance transport and frequently becalmed.
World steamship tonnage exceeded sailing tonnage only in 1893.
Although coal cost more than wind, steam ships rapidly became
cheaper as well as faster than sailing ships, because their
schedules were more regular and avoided the circuitous routes
required by sailing vessels. Transport underground through tunnels
by high-speed magnetically levitated trains is already on the
drawing boards in Japan; such systems would be less sensitive to
climate than the surface and air systems now in use.
Climate is only one of several factors that have driven the
evolution of systems of communications, transport and energy. It is
probably secondary. But vulnerability to climate and other
environmental forces may be a good proxy for quality and
reliability of service. To the extent that the systems evolve in
the direction of higher quality and reliability, these trajectories
of development may also decrease vulnerability of major systems to
climatic change. It would be useful to identify exceptions to this
pattern, should they exist.
As incomes depend less on activities out of doors, societies
become less vulnerable to climate. The trend in all developed
countries since the industrial revolution began is away from
employment outdoors (Fig. 1) and to ward employment in the service
sector, most of which is in climate-controlled office buildings and
shops. With a lag of 50-100 years the same trend is found in less
developed countries, where 4050 per cent of the population is now
engaged in agriculture. if the current trend continues, this
fraction should diminish to 20-25 per cent by 2050.
What are the times characteristic of technical innovation and
diffusion of technologies in relation to the time of human induced
climatic change? Taking account of both C02 and
non-CO2 greenhouse gases, major climatic shifts are
expected during 40-50 years (ref. 11). A retrospect on technology
during the past century suggests the extent of change during the
decades to come: in 1890 there was little farming in California and
Australia, and key technologies did not yet exist or were not
widely applied to impound and transport water, or to transport and
store agricultural products promptly; in 1903 the Wright Brothers
flew 59 seconds at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, whereas in 1990 in
the United States, over 500 million air passengers flew around 450
x 109 miles12; commercial transatlantic
aviation, relying on the jet engine, superseded travel by ocean
liners about 1960; tourism has been extended to Antarctica, and
scientific bases there are occupied year round, despite the fact
that it was only in 1911-1912 that Roald Amundsen reached the South
Pole and Robert Scott died there; penicillin, the first important
antibiotic, was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928, and
large-scale production began only as recently as 1943; nuclear
power for electricity generation first came into use in the late
1950s, but within about 30 years it was able to provide over 70 per
cent of France's electric power; until 1965 no satellites were used
for any routine application, whereas satellite systems now girdle
the Earth, watching for storms, relaying communications, and
helping ships and planes navigate anywhere on the globe; and
finally, although the microprocessor was only introduced in 1971
and the personal computer appeared about 1977, Americans are now
using over 50 million personal computers.
During the period in question and with or without climatic
change, technology will transform the way people live. Food,
energy, transportation and all the other systems that support human
life and the economy will be changed by technologies that can be
glimpsed now, such as genetic engineering, fusion,
superconductivity and desalination, as well as by technologies yet
to be easily pictured. Fifty to a hundred years will allow the
replacement of most major technological systems. Indeed, 50 years
are enough time to turnover almost the entire capital stock of the
society. About two-thirds of capital stock is usually in machines
and equipment and about one-third in buildings and other
structures. In Japan, the average renewal period for capital stock
in business, the time it takes for machinery and equipment in an
industry to be almost completely replaced, ranges from about 22
years in the textile industry down to ten years or less in such
fast-moving industries as telecommunications and electrical
machinery (see Table). In agriculture the estimated life span of
cultivars in the United States is seven years for maize, eight for
sorghum and cotton, and nine for wheat and soybeans13,
and most experts believe the life span of cultivars will grow
shorter, Relative to greenhouse warming, turnover is also fast for
nonmachinery capital stock, which includes buildings, pipelines,
and so forth. According to recent surveys in the Federal Republic
of Germany in 1985 some 60 per cent of the stock is less than 20
years old and in the Soviet Union some 80 per cent is less than 20
years old (Fig. 2).
At first such figures may surprise us. But some reflection about
the built environment relieves the surprise. Consider the office
space in a modem city. Most of the space is in buildings completed
in the last 20-30 years. These new buildings are filled with new
equipment, for example, new telephone systems. Indeed, even older
buildings are filled with modem equipment that did not exist 15 or
20 years ago. The same is true for super markets, restaurants and
other stores. A large fraction of residential housing is similarly
young and, in turn, filled largely with new domestic appliances of
all kinds. If societies grow at a rate of 2-3 per cent per year, as
the industrialized societies have for the past 150 years, then half
of all capital stock will always be younger than 30 years old.
Probably the systems that take longest to build are
infrastructures. Even these are constructed in less than a
century14. Many infra structure systems are (or should
be) continuously reconstructed. For example, roads are repaved
every 5-15 years, depending on use. The 7,000-kilometre canal
system of the United States was almost entirely built in the 30
years between 1820 and 1850. More than 90 per cent of the
300,000-mile US railway network was laid in the 65 years between
1855 and 1920. The paving of virtually the entire six
million-kilometre surface road system of the United States was
accomplished between 1920 and 1985. The US interstate highway
system was completed in about 30 years from the time that it was
announced by President Eisenhower. It is interesting to consider
whether climatic change could re quire any public works on this
scale; coastal protection and interbasin water transfer would seem
the most likely candidates.
Because capital stock continuously turns over on a time scale of
a few decades, it will be possible to put in place much technology
that is adjusted to a changing climate. This ran be done without
extraordinary measures given reasonably accurate information about
the future. For the shortest lifetimes, even accurate information
about the present climate will do.
That perhaps 90 per cent of the global capital stock in the year
2040 will be bat after 1990 does not diminish the significance of
some long-lived structures. Action may be necessary to protect
cities such as Venire, where preservation of historic buildings is
the goal. In such cases, the process of replacement is not
relevant.
The adaptations for long-term climatic change will probably
mostly be the same as for other climate variation. The
technologies, small and large, that buffer human activity over the
long-term will be the same ones that mollify the difference between
day time and nighttime temperatures, protect against normal
variability between days, shield from storms and hail, adjust to
the sea sons, and adapt to the wide range of climates where people
already live.
No one has yet presented a radical innovation uniquely adaptive
for the greenhouse effect. The main innovations directed at the
greenhouse effect are so far organizational, in particular research
groups in universities and government and assessment groups, such
as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). If the
future green house climate in any place will consist of climates
that already exist somewhere on Earth, then many of the adaptations
may look familiar.
Because the population of the world is imploding into cities, it
seems logical that technologies that make cities habitable in
un-welcoming climates will be among the technologies that are most
important. Houston, Phoenix and Toronto may offer lessons. The
trend in such places is toward ever larger en closures of space and
passageways connecting them, where workers and shoppers are not
subject to the elements. Already during much of the year in such
cities few people are seen outside on the streets. Technologies for
‘smarter’ buildings and for more efficient building materials
should be adaptive. Cities in developing countries, which are often
in difficult climates to begin with and face worsening problems of
urban pollution, may well lack the resources to apply such
technologies to raise or maintain the quality of life in the face
of changing climate.
Until this century much of the human struggle with climate was
to keep warm. Because the struggle succeeded, in 1850 the
population in Europe, a land of well chronicled and damaging
winters, was three times as large as that of Africa and nine times
as large as that of Latin America15. Now a main change
in adaptation will be emphasis on technologies to stay cool. There
is already pressure and success in this direction, population grows
in tropical regions and people migrate south in temperate zones.
Chemicals for refrigeration that do not exacerbate the greenhouse
effect may thus earn a premium, and, of course, low greenhouse gas
emission technologies to produce electricity and energy in
general.
For water resources, larger-scale control of flows may be the
trend. The Thames Barrage and the Netherlands Rhine Delta scheme
may exemplify massive hydraulic systems that will be imitated in
areas of major coastal populations. Freshwater systems in some
regions would also be made more robust by extending networks of
supply over wider spaces through interbasin transfer and other
strategies. In practical terms, many of the technologies needed may
be well-established, for example, tunnelling, pumps and other
technologies traditional to civil and mechanical engineering,
updated with electronic sensors and other devices for management
and control. Technologies for management of water demand will be
equally or more attractive in many regions; these would include not
only hardware technologies for minimizing leaks, but also software
technologies from operations research, as well as economic and
other incentives.
In agriculture, with a few notable exceptions, most emerging
technologies are expected to reduce substantially the land and
water required16. At least in the United States the
trends in agricultural technology are in the direction that should
be sought in view of climatic change. Almost all technologies that
are attractive for agriculture are only more attractive in light of
the possibility of climatic change. Specifically, appealing
directions for agricultural innovation might include
diversification of crop production by varying maturity, heat and
drought tolerance, input needs, and end uses; innovation in
planting and spacing; collecting and recycling irrigation run-off;
soil moisture conservation; better moisture-use efficiency and
improved use of plastics and other new materials; resistance to
pests and insects; management practices; institutional measures;
programmes and facilities to support extreme contingencies; and
infrastructure. Many of these are applications of information
technologies, as well as biotechnologies and more traditional
agricultural and mechanical technologies. It may be possible to
design and select plants adapted to higher concentrations of
CO2, and other changes in the atmosphere.
Though many innovations helpful in a rapidly changing climate
are more likely to come from private enterprise than government,
governments ran help in two ways.
One way governments ran aid adaptation is through timely
information. One variety is assessments of the issues relating to
climatic change. A second important and more operational variety of
information is improved weather and climate forecasts. Eventually
the climate of the far future will become to morrow's weather.
Information about it is likely to improve the possibility that it
will be more resource than hazard.
There has been a gradual, measured improvement in weather
forecasting during the past 20 years (ref. 17). In the greenhouse
issue, all nations should find strong motivation to improve
forecasts and the data and research underlying them. The quality of
weather analyses and forecasts in many developing countries,
especially in the tropics, is markedly lower than those in
developed countries, particularly in the northern hemisphere.
Advances in numerical modeling and extension of technology for
monitoring in tropical regions can cause substantial
improvements.
A third innovation in information relates to markets. The needs
are for facilitation of information flows and improvements in rules
for markets, in particular, markets for water. In many nations,
water is allocated largely through administrative means based on
water rights. Water transfers accommodate new patterns of climate,
as well as changing farming and urban and industrial growth. They
allow water to be used where it is most valuable18.
Flexibility of water transfer is important, because the life of
water projects is often 50-100 years or more19.
Substantial subsidies for water for irrigation, in particular,
lead to prices that en courage inefficiency. 'Mere is little
incentive to conserve. Higher cost of constructing water projects
and more demand and competition for water for such uses as
preservation of wildlife, recreation, and cities make the issue
serious. Several long-term con tracts in the Central Valley of
California provide water for only $3.50 per acre-foot, whereas new
sources of supply would cost the federal government or the state
$200-300 per acre-foot per year for construction
alone18. Allowing and encouraging voluntary marketing of
the resource among users could help adapt to climate changes and
produce economic benefits. Voluntary water transfers could take
several forms, including permanent sales, long-term leases, short
term leases, and leases contingent on drought.
Although markets may require innovation by government in
providing information and rules, there are also traditional
‘hardware’ opportunities for innovation in public works. Government
is the primary purchaser, financier and manager of systems of water
supply and waste disposal, as well as coastal facilities. These
take decades to site and construct and then can last generations.
There may be opportunities for government to enhance innovation in
infrastructure in light of the possibility of a changing
environment.
Conclusion
Technologies are available for adaptation to climate on a
spectrum of space, time and cost. Within minutes and for a few
dollars one can buy an umbrella for local protection against a
shower. Such technologies diffuse rapidly into the society, in a
matter of months or years. Larger and more costly innovations, like
electric refrigerators, may take 20 or 30 years to become
pervasive. At the other end of the spectrum, large systems, like
those for water and transportation take several decades or
generations to extend themselves fully and may cost tens or
hundreds of billions of dollars.
Technological performance has improved throughout human history,
and in this century waves of innovation have come ever more
rapidly20. In many systems, there have been steady
improvements in efficiency of about two per cent per year, so that
systems built today, for instance in energy, are about twice as
efficient as those built 30 years ago21. Today
generating a kilowatt of electricity in a steam plant takes only 15
per cent as much fossil fuel as at the turn of the century. A
doubling of overall efficiency of several major systems should be
possible just by replacing existing systems with best technologies
and practices available today. This, of course, takes capital, and
it is not clear that the expected rate of climatic change warrants
an acceleration over the rate of change in physical capital stock
that is already occurring, as long as the new stock is acquired
with the best information about future climate in mind.
The general direction of change in technology and civilization
is heartening for those anxious about climatic change. The trend is
toward systems that are less vulnerable to climate. It would seem
to be sensible to maintain this course and not to revert to
reliance on such technologies as sailing ships and water mills that
are more sensitive to climate. The highest need is probably to
assure the inventive genius, economic power, and administrative
competence that make the many technologies useful in adapting to
climate available to the most people.
FIGURES

FIG. 1 Share of the workforce employed in
agriculture21.

FIG. 2 Age distribution of nonmachinery capital stock in the
FRG, data for 1985 (ref. 23) (hatched bars), and in the Soviet
Union (solid bars), data as of 1986 (USSR State Committee on
Statistics, Statistics on social indicators and capital vintage
structure in industry, undated memo, Institute for Social and
Economic Statistics, Moscow; courtesy of A. Grübler, Laxenburg,
Austria).
TABLE
| CAPITAL STOCK RENEWAL |
| Industry |
Renewal period |
|
All Industries
|
13.4
|
| |
|
|
Manufacturing (all)
|
15.8
|
|
Electrical machinery
|
9.8
|
|
Transport machinery
|
13.2
|
|
Pulp and paper
|
13.7
|
|
General machinery
|
14.2
|
|
Food stuff
|
16.7
|
|
Steel and non-ferrous metals
|
21.1
|
|
Textiles
|
22.5
|
|
Non-manufacturing (all)
|
11.8
|
|
Service
|
8.1
|
|
Transport and Telecommunications
|
10.7
|
|
Construction
|
11.9
|
|
Finance and insurance
|
12.8
|
|
Distribution
|
15.6
|
|
Real estate
|
15.8
|
| Electricity, gas and water supply |
15.8
|
CAPITAL STOCK RENEWAL: Average renewal period for capital stock
of business corporations in Japan by industrial sector, 1986-87
(ref. 22).
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