Mitigate or Adapt?
The effects of climate change on people and the environment, and the two ways of responding: mitigation, which reduces the causes, and adaptation, which adjusts to the effects.
Use it, the way the marks are given
Free interactive practice at using the material, which is what the marks are for.
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Fight the cause or cope with it?
A warming climate brings real effects, from flooding and stronger storms to droughts and lost habitats. Countries can respond in two very different ways: they can cut the causes so the warming is smaller, or they can adjust to the effects that are coming anyway. This module looks at those effects and at the two response strategies, mitigation and adaptation.
Response words to know
Learn these before you sort the strategies.
Mitigation against adaptation
The two strategies aim at different points.
Ask one question first
For any response, ask a single question: does it attack the cause, or cope with the effect? If it cuts the gases that drive warming, it is mitigation. If it helps people live with the changes that are coming, it is adaptation. Keep the two in separate sentences, because muddling them is where marks are lost.
Match the effect
- rising sea levels
- stronger storms
- longer droughts
- shifting habitats
- low coasts and islands flood
- more damage to homes and land
- crops fail and water runs short
- species must move or die out
Mitigation or adaptation?
- switching to renewable energy
- planting more forests
- building sea walls
- growing drought-resistant crops
- mitigation, it cuts the gases
- mitigation, it absorbs carbon
- adaptation, it holds back the sea
- adaptation, it copes with dry spells
Which is mitigation?
Which of these responses is an example of mitigation?
- Replacing coal power with wind and solar energy.
- Building a higher sea wall to hold back floods.
- Planting crops that cope with drought.
- Moving a village away from a flooding coast.
Spot the adaptation
Select the TWO responses that are adaptation.
- Building flood defences along a river
- Storing water for times of drought
- Fitting solar panels to cut emissions
- Planting trees to absorb carbon
Count the adaptations
A town plans 6 climate actions. 4 of them cut the gases that cause warming. Subtract to find how many of the actions are adaptation instead. What is the answer?
Order the planning
Put the steps of choosing a climate response in order, earliest first.
- Identify the effect that threatens the area
- Ask whether to fight the cause or cope with it
- Choose a mitigation or adaptation action
- Review whether it reduces the harm
Complete the summary
Reducing or removing the causes of climate change is called _____, for example switching to _____ energy. Adjusting to the effects that are coming is called _____, for example building sea _____ against flooding.
Spot the mitigation
Tap the TWO actions that are mitigation, attacking the cause of climate change.
- building wind farms
- planting forests
- raising a sea wall
- switching to drought-resistant crops
Sort the response
Read each action and choose whether it is mitigation or adaptation.
- A country closes its coal power stations and builds wind farms. Which response is this?
- A low-lying city builds higher flood barriers to hold back rising seas. Which response is this?
- Farmers switch to crops that can survive with far less water. Which response is this?
Explain the two responses
Explain the difference between mitigation and adaptation, using examples, and describe one effect of climate change that each could deal with.
- Define mitigation and give one example
- Define adaptation and give one example
- Explain why the two must not be confused in an answer