Crafting Climate Resilience Strategies with Human Welfare, Rather than Financial Gain as Priority
In the heart of southwestern Bangladesh, the land thirsts for nutrients once carried by the river, while the embankments, designed to control the water's behaviour, often fail during storms. This is a stark example of maladaptation, a term defined by the United Nations as "an adaptation that does not succeed in reducing vulnerability but increases it instead."
Stephen Robert Miller, author of the upcoming book Over the Seawall, delves into this concept, exploring what happens when human ingenuity fails at a massive scale. The book takes readers through specific regions in the world where maladaptation has harmed communities, including southwestern Bangladesh.
The embankment failures in this region have led to schools closing and homes being destroyed. The saltwater that penetrated their communities ruined critical farmland. Yet, the Bangladeshi people have fought back, cutting sections of the embankments to bring the ecosystem back into balance.
The levee and embankment system in southwestern Bangladesh was adapted from similar ones in the Netherlands. However, government corruption and lack of maintenance have led to their failures. The book also highlights how these structures offered a "false sense of security," delaying a more urgent response to the tsunami threat, as seen in northeastern Japan.
Miller's debut book, Over the Seawall, is a compelling exploration of maladaptation and its unintended consequences. It underscores the importance of community-driven, holistic approaches to climate adaptation to avoid maladaptive outcomes.
Today, cities like New York and Miami are considering their own seawalls. However, according to Miller, the concrete industry and politicians stand to profit the most from such projects. Meanwhile, Japan continues to build seawalls, with the infrastructure growing in popularity across the globe as climate change drives sea level rise and beach erosion.
The UN, through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), defines maladaptation in the context of climate change as adaptation actions that result in increased vulnerability to climate change, reduce the capacity to adapt sustainably in the future, or cause other adverse effects such as increased greenhouse gas emissions or inequitable outcomes.
In summary, the UN/IPCC view of maladaptation, as cited and discussed in Miller's work, is adaptation that:
- Increases climate vulnerability or risks,
- Undermines future adaptive capacity,
- May cause negative socio-economic or environmental side effects,
- Often occurs unintentionally through poorly planned or narrowly focused interventions such as certain infrastructure projects.
This aligns with the official UN guidance highlighting the need to avoid maladaptation in national adaptation planning and policy frameworks.
Activism and bravery sit at the heart of the riverside communities' struggles in southwestern Bangladesh. Their fight serves as a reminder that community-driven solutions are crucial in the face of climate change, and that the pursuit of short-term gains should not come at the expense of long-term sustainability.
- Stephen Robert Miller, in his book Over the Seawall, discusses the concept of maladaptation, which he examines as the failure of human ingenuity on a large scale, focusing on specific regions where this has harmed communities, such as southwestern Bangladesh.
- The book Over the Seawall illustrates examples of maladaptation that have negatively impacted communities, like southwestern Bangladesh, where embankment failures led to school closures, home destruction, and the ruin of critical farmland.
- Absent a sustainable, community-driven approach to climate adaptation, maladaptation can have far-reaching consequences, such as increased climate vulnerability, reduced adaptive capacity, and negative socio-economic or environmental side effects, as seen in the case of the levee and embankment system in southwestern Bangladesh.
- In light of the presence of maladaptation in various regions, such as northeastern Japan, it becomes paramount to prioritize sustainable and holistic adaptation strategies, particularly those guided by and empowering the local community, to effectively address climate change.
- The UN, through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), defines maladaptation within the context of climate change as actions that increase vulnerability to climate change, reduce the capacity to adapt in the future, or cause negative socio-economic or environmental side effects, such as unequal outcomes or excessive greenhouse gas emissions, often stemming from narrowly focused interventions like certain infrastructure projects.
