The National Adaptation forum has just been held in Denver (USA). This adaptation is based on the analysis of the adaptation strategies to the new world posed by climate change. Adapt when many of us still question whether climate change is true? Is it so strong?

In the progressive alternet space Cynical companies are already scheming how getting rich off global warming (Cynic companies are in the process of negotiating to enrich themselves with global warming) Alexander Zaitchik has published a chronicle with the subtitle: “Local officials and environmentalists have been making plans for America after global warming. Businesses seeking profit have done the same.” Zaitchik is a freelance journalist, among other Common nonsense: Author of the book Glenn Beck and the triumph of ignorance.

The congress, held in the Zaitchik chronicle, between April 2 and 4, brought together over 500 participants, representatives of the 20 federal agencies that the US Government has created to adapt to climate change, officials from a dozen coastal states at risk, NGOs, university researchers...

The definition of adaptation was reflected in several presentations of the congress: “Adaptation of Cities”, “Building Resilience of the Shore of the Sea”, “Adaptation of Wild Living Beings and Movement of Domesticated Species”, “Walls of Dikes and Waves: Planning of Coasts and Maritime Spaces”...

Resilience (resilience to stress and impotence) and adaptation have become fashionable words. Zaitchiki, a congressman, has confessed to him that “two years ago I would have been kicked out of any meeting if I had talked about climate change and the need for investment to address it.” But Sandy's great storm changed the atmosphere. Imagine that Denver Mayor Michael Hancock announced at the congress that he named April 2 “Day to Discover the Need to Adapt to the Climate.”

Zaitchik believes that many such gestures will no longer be needed. “As superstorms, floods and droughts grow and harden, the need to protect and adapt to them (adaptation) will outweigh the reduction in greenhouse gases (mitigation) on the climate agenda.”

Congress sponsors have been the Geos Institute (“Using science to helpeople predict, reduce, and prepare for climate change”), think tanka of climate adaptation, and consultant Stratus, pioneer in advising public and private customers on climate risks. Both are owned by Daniel Kreeger, founder of the Association of Climate Change Officers.

“I have calculated – Kreeger said to the journalist – that in terms of climate and adaptation there will be 30,000 or 50,000 professionals in the next decade.” The Climate Strategies Forum, organised for next September in Washington, will last three days. Sponsorship is charged $25,000.

Climate justice and business

The Denver meeting has referred to the relocation of people, livestock and houses, the strengthening of what can be saved in vulnerable areas and the abandonment of what cannot be done. To put it graphically, on the restoration of housing maps in the United States. United States “Adapting ten years ago was a ugly word, it meant giving in between professional greens and entrepreneurs. Then, with international climate negotiations and signs that climate change is not reversed, they have lost their repugnance.”

Zaitchik mentioned Lara Hansen as a model. After going through the U.S. Environmental Agency and later through the World Wildlife Fund, in 2008 he founded EcoAdapt, a residence to investigate climate change, buying a small island on the seafront of Washington State. According to the journalist, “the idea of EcoAdapt is to push people to take adaptation measures beyond awareness.”

Bill McKibben, of the organization 350.org, was one of the most special members he had ever had. He just published the book Eaarth, to explain that most of us are no longer the planet on which we were born. “We have to look at what part of our life and our ideologies we have to leave behind in order to protect the insides of our societies and civilizations.”

In the United States, the Global Change Research Act to address this issue is 1990, George W. From Bush's time, but he's been sleeping in the papers for 15 years, until Barack Obama's administration has revitalized him. This project has launched the Adaptation Task Force, with the aim of analysing the risks of climate change and making proposals.

The creationist Christians of the far-right have long hindered the progress of this matter. The summit of natural disasters, for example, because of the terrible floods that the state of North Dakota has suffered four times in five years.

At Congress, Zaitchik told us at Alternet, the fear of the social revolutions that climate change can bring has not stopped thinking. Along with this, the need to reverse and decentralise societies, the need to reduce economic activity and waste by intensifying industry in many places ... “But the question is whether the transitions we are going to make in time or too late are mentioned.”

In Denver there were officials from the cities who had gone to find solutions to specific problems; Zaitchik quoted one from Chicago, worried that the dirty water pipeline was increasingly hanging out because of the floods. Many others, like Lara Hansen, wanted to make a more holistic approach to improving the economic and social protection of the people who are going to be most affected.

Another congressman, Jacqueline Patterson, said that “climate change exacerbates existing social inequalities in health, closeness to toxic landfills, relationships with the police and the media, emergency services, capacity in general.”

On the contrary, large companies see investments, opportunities and risks in these changes. The United Nations has set the company movement in this sector at $130 billion. Water and farmland have become particularly important. Prices rise. A Global Adaptation Index created by the oil companies is already listed on the stock market, with 11 billion portfolio of Natural Gas Partners. A rain that makes one cry happy to another.