The Building Research & Information special issue (2003, 31[3–4]) ‘Preparing for Climate Change: Adapting the Built Environment’ produced some welcome surprise and some disappointment. With the overwhelming emphasis of climate change information and response focused on mitigation, it was refreshing and even encouraging to discover that there was an active discourse on adaptation. This is particularly true in consideration of the evidence that no amount of probable mitigation measures are likely to affect the established greenhouse gas trends and resulting climate changes for several decades. However, each paper still seemed to contain a similar preamble: climate change is highly probable, albeit not precisely predictable and perfectly linked to anthropogenic greenhouse gases; there is doubt about climate outcomes, especially in particular locales, but enough trends are apparent to make a case, etc., therefore . . . . Is it still actually necessary to produce rationales for climate change action in view of the substantial evidence that both mitigation measures and some adaptation measures are actually economically productive and lead to risk reduction and social benefit?
[1]
Nils Larsson,et al.
Adapting to climate change in Canada
,
2003
.
[2]
Rj Lowe,et al.
Preparing the built environment for climate change
,
2003
.
[3]
Y. Shimoda.
Adaptation measures for climate change and the urban heat island in Japan's built environment
,
2003
.
[4]
Evan Mills,et al.
Climate change, insurance and the buildings sector: technological synergisms between adaptation and mitigation
,
2003
.
[5]
Knut H. Alfsen,et al.
Preparing for climate change impacts in Norway's built environment
,
2003
.
[6]
R. J. Scholes,et al.
The built environment and climate change in South Africa
,
2003
.
[7]
Frans Berkhout,et al.
Climate change and the UK house building sector: perceptions, impacts and adaptive capacity
,
2003
.
[8]
Koen Steemers,et al.
Towards a research agenda for adapting to climate change
,
2003
.