Adaptation is a necessity.

[Altair]

The UK is once again hurt by floods and storms. If hilly Britain hadn't destroyed so many of its forests on the hills, it would have had more natural buffers that could retain the water (and also provide a buff to biodiversity!).

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...haos-across-uk

Humans can be as inventive as they want, and come up with as many expensive civic engineering projects as they want, building dikes and dams and other large constructions to keep nature at bay... but at the end of the day nothing is as efficient in protecting our homes from floods than forests and marshlands. People's negative attitude towards nature, one of fighting it, is ultimately causing a lot of these troubles.

you should look up that huge Chinese dam, China's Three Gorges Dam
it's one of the few man-made structures on Earth that's visible to the naked eye from space, according to NASA.

people are saying that when it fails, millions will die

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/ch...20downs tream.

[Altair]

Dams are an affront to nature, especially large dams:

How dams damage rivers https://www.americanrivers.org/threa...damage-rivers/

Large dams damage health https://en.hesperian.org/hhg/A_Commu..._Damage_Health

Large dams across the world have been damaging not just entire ecosystems but also human communities.
See Amazon dams or the Aswan dam in Nubia, Egypt.

''Break the dam! Release the river!''
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x7M...nnel=KelmainPS

Dams be damned!

To get on track... let us use PLANTS to protect civilization, not construction after construction!

[Altair]

Millions of people around the world are facing disaster from flood, droughts, heatwaves and other extreme weather, as governments fail to take the measures needed to adapt to the impacts of climate breakdown, the UN has warned.
https://www.theguardian.com/environm...kdown-un-warns

The article further states the very obvious truth that nature-based solutions should be prioritised, such as planting trees, restoring mangroves, and regenerating land.

The beauty of climate adaptation is that you can directly tackle these issues as well as give biodiversity and liveability a plus. While climate mitigation is important, you do not create these other pluses with it. Nature-based solutions should be given much more exposure and recognition.

[Challenger007]

Originally Posted by Altair

The UK is once again hurt by floods and storms. If hilly Britain hadn't destroyed so many of its forests on the hills, it would have had more natural buffers that could retain the water (and also provide a buff to biodiversity!).

Humans can be as inventive as they want, and come up with as many expensive civic engineering projects as they want, building dikes and dams and other large constructions to keep nature at bay... but at the end of the day nothing is as efficient in protecting our homes from floods than forests and marshlands. People's negative attitude towards nature, one of fighting it, is ultimately causing a lot of these troubles.

Well, you understand that most are more interested in setting up something, pouring out some crazy thousands of tons of concrete, than just abandoning some regular buildings in favor of preserving the health of the planet. Now all of humanity is raking the consequences of these decisions.

[Altair]

Originally Posted by Challenger007

Well, you understand that most are more interested in setting up something, pouring out some crazy thousands of tons of concrete, than just abandoning some regular buildings in favor of preserving the health of the planet. Now all of humanity is raking the consequences of these decisions.

Things have to change..

Start small. Check your own town/neighborhood and try to get involved in local decision making. Together we are stronger.

[Altair]

These kind of initiatives are pretty much in line with the rest..

Reforestation projects should include tree diversity targets, too

https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/re...oo-commentary/

Just planting a lot of trees isn't enough if it's all more of the same. Diversity of tree species improves overall biodiversity, limits impact of pests and disease, and also creates living spaces for people that are more attractive.

[hallow]

Originally Posted by Altair

Things have to change.

population control! More people there are the more energy in all angles is needed. Bottom line is people need to eat, keep warm, clothed and sheltered. The more people they are the more resources needed.

[Altair]

What is worrying is that we have solutions available but actually only consume more and more with each decade. Two decades ago there were no smartphones and few had a laptop. Now most people have those and they need to be charged on a daily basis. And then there's now big data centres with energy demands, next up bitcoin. It seems to get worse and worse.

Oh and this has a DIRECT impact on the landscape, especially with the renewable/'green' energy craze, which has huge spatial impacts on ecosystems.

[bobjob]

Originally Posted by Altair

What is worrying is that we have solutions available but actually only consume more and more with each decade. Two decades ago there were no smartphones and few had a laptop. Now most people have those and they need to be charged on a daily basis.

Let's not forget that the push to clean up the atmosphere is leading the world down the path of developing electrically powered vehicles.

They're considered non-polluting (emissions) but producing the electrical energy they would need for battery charging will remain as dirty as ever until more renewable power can be generated. The electrical demands of smart-phones and computers is important of course but may be small by comparison.

I fear for the future of EV because the change from internal combustion engines will be huge and immensely expensive and there's no certainty how quickly it can be achieved on a large-enough scale. It's possible - perhaps more likely - that other vehicle power sources will be developed and hydrogen-powered engines are more likely to succeed in my view.