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Are there social limits to adaptation to climate change?

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Abstract

While there is a recognised need to adapt to changing climatic conditions, there is an emerging discourse of limits to such adaptation. Limits are traditionally analysed as a set of immutable thresholds in biological, economic or technological parameters. This paper contends that limits to adaptation are endogenous to society and hence contingent on ethics, knowledge, attitudes to risk and culture. We review insights from history, sociology and psychology of risk, economics and political science to develop four propositions concerning limits to adaptation. First, any limits to adaptation depend on the ultimate goals of adaptation underpinned by diverse values. Second, adaptation need not be limited by uncertainty around future foresight of risk. Third, social and individual factors limit adaptation action. Fourth, systematic undervaluation of loss of places and culture disguises real, experienced but subjective limits to adaptation. We conclude that these issues of values and ethics, risk, knowledge and culture construct societal limits to adaptation, but that these limits are mutable.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

    W. Neil Adger, Mike Hulme, Irene Lorenzoni, Lars Otto Naess & Johanna Wolf

  2. Department of Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    Suraje Dessai

  3. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

    Marisa Goulden

  4. Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Donald R. Nelson

  5. Scottish Agricultural College, Edinburgh, UK

    Anita Wreford

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  1. W. Neil Adger
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  2. Suraje Dessai
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  3. Marisa Goulden
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  4. Mike Hulme
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Correspondence to W. Neil Adger.

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Adger, W.N., Dessai, S., Goulden, M. et al. Are there social limits to adaptation to climate change?. Climatic Change 93, 335–354 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-008-9520-z

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