What do I mean? "Responsibility" in adaptation to climate change is similar to the way we view responsibility with regard to smoking and lung cancer. For a very long time people felt that there was a relationship between smoking and lung cancer but it was difficult to prove. There was also a concerted effort to obfuscate the relationship by the tobacco companies.

In climate change, we have seen oil and gas interests try to obfuscate and confuse responsibility for climatic changes. Their efforts are only now beginning to crumble. According to the Anchorage Daily News of February 26, 2008, the first global warming lawsuit has been filed in federal district court by both the City of Kivalina and the Native Village of Kivalina (a federally recognized tribe). It is against nine oil companies, fourteen electric power companies and one coal company. The complaint states: "This is a suit to recover damages from global warming caused by defendants' actions."

Kivalina is one of at least a half-dozen villages on Alaska's coast suffering severe erosion. This erosion is mostly related to late fall freezing of ice that allows storms to batter the coasts where these villages are located. The villages of Kivalina, Shishmaref, Unalakleet, and Newtok, among others, were once protected from these tidal surges by sea ice-but now the land is being eroded away. The costs of seawall improvements are estimated in the range of $10-20 million and relocation costs for Kivalina alone are estimated in the range of $100 million.

The questions asked by this lawsuit are "Who is going to pay?" and "Where is the money going to come from to save these villages?"

This is an interesting development in adaptation to climate change. While I am not a lawyer, I will be watching the outcome of this lawsuit and the precedent that it will set in terms of how responsibility is assessed for costs of adapting to climate changes that may have been more easily avoided in the past than they are now and than they will be in the future.

When the Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant was being planned in the late 1980s, projections were that sea level was rising and would continue to rise due to global warming. Looking at the projections available at that time a plausible numerical value related to the projected rise was chosen for the target date of 2050, the projected lifetime of the plant. Planners decided to raise the plant 1.9 feet to accommodate at least the amount of rise projected for the lifetime of the facility.

The two things that are important to me from the Deer Island experience are:

1. The group's recognition that the future will be different from the past and that they should plan for the future. To me this is one of the most important messages that needs to be incorporated into thinking and planning; too often we use the historical climate of the past to plan future actions.
2. Assessing and taking the actions that would be more difficult and expensive to incorporate at a later date. While it is difficult to knowingly increase an expenditure, it is sometimes the prudent course and can actually save a great deal of cost and effort in the long run. For example, at Deer Island's plant, spending money raising the plant was far cheaper than the projected cost of adding pumps later, once sea level had risen so far as to require them. Since there was plenty of fill on the island, this was a cost-effective decision. On the other hand, planners decided not to plan to armor the island at the same time, since this could be done later and at a relatively small cost.

The Network sincerely thanks Stephen Estes-Smargiassi, Director of Planning, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Boston, MA. (617) 788-4303, email: Stephen.Estes-Smargiassi@mwra.state.ma.us for discussing these important considerations in depth with us.

The Town of Sandwich, MA has included climate change in the development of the town's new comprehensive plan. The plans calls for the development of a mitigation plan and an adaptation plan for the town. This change in the town plan follows attendance at the December 2007 meeting called by the Waquoit Bay Estuarine Research Reserve entitled: Climate Change and Cape Cod: Coastal Impacts and Adaptation Strategies, at which Adaptation Network Director Lynne Carter spoke on the need for towns to include adaptation planning in comprehensive plans. Kudos to Town Planner Bob Fultz for looking forward to better protect and prepare his town for coming changes.

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Congratulations to Josh Foster, for his new appointment as the Adaptation Program Manager at the nonprofit organization Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP)! Josh was formerly Program Coordinator for the Transition of Research Applications to Climate Services (TRACS) Program, at the federal agency NOAA.

The Connecticut General Assembly passed a bill entitled: AN ACT CONCERNING CONNECTICUT GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTIONS on April 30, 2008. The bill includes a specific section (section 7) focused on planning for impacts (adaptation).

From the United States' Climate Change Science Program (CCSP)'s Assessment series: Impacts of Climate Change and Variability on Transportation Systems and Infrastructure: Gulf Coast Study, Phase I. The first of this three-phase series assesses Gulf Coast transportation system vulnerabilities to potential changes in weather patterns and related impacts, based on 21 simulation models and a range of emissions scenarios. Results suggest that potential changes in climate over the next 50 - 100 years could disrupt transportation services in the region: 27% of major roads, nine percent of rail lines, and 72 % of ports in the area are at or below four feet above sea level. The report suggests including in future transportation planning and development: exposure to climate stressors, vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation. It also suggests using a new planning approach based on "probabilities of potential impacts." To download the document go to: www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap4-7/final-report/.

From the US Department of Transportation's (DOT's) Center for Climate Change and Environmental Forecasting: Potential Impacts of Global Sea Level Rise on Transportation Infrastructure, Phase 1, The District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia. This document estimates the impacts of sea level rise on East Coast transportation systems to allow development of "a plan to address the potential impacts of sea level rise" and to provide information on the location and quantity of infrastructure that could be affected. This document notes the average rate of coastal erosion along with varying estimates of sea level rise over the next 50 - 100 years could result in the necessity of protecting important low-lying elements of the transportation system. To download this document, go to: http://climate.dot.gov/publications/potential_impacts_of_global_sea_level_rise/index.html. Phase 2 will be about New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, and the Atlantic Coast of Florida.

Links to documents on adaptation underway or planned in the U.S. can be found on the Adaptation Network's website, www.adaptationnetwork.org. These documents are Preparing for Climate Change: A Guidebook for Local, Regional, and State Governments by the Climate Impacts Group, ICLEI, and King County, Washington; A Survey of Climate Change Adaptation Planning by the Heinz Center, and also Lynne Carter's Powerpoint presentation, "Adaptation: It's Just Better Planning."

Environment Canada's Adaptation and Impacts Research Division has released the first edition of its Compendium of Adaptation Models for Climate Change. Contact: don.maciver@ec.gc.ca. It selects 35 adaptation models and summarizes them. Another useful feature of the Compendium is its categorization of adaptation models into four groups: impact-centered models (ICMs); adaptation-centered models (ACMs); evaluation models; and optimization models.