Building climate adaptation on flooded fields

Emma Tompkins from the University of Southampton has been studying why people do things that help their whole community adapt to climate change. Credit: International Institute for Sustainable Development

Even as many governments seem too paralysed to act on climate change, some people and organisations are beginning to adapt to its challenges and threats. And there are cases where their efforts are providing benefits that can be enjoyed by their communities, without receiving any financial reward. While such acts currently don’t get much attention, Emma Tompkins from the University of Southampton, UK, and Hallie Eakin from Arizona State University think they’re fairly common. Emma told me that private actions like farmers allowing their fields to flood to protect more developed areas downstream could be worth millions. “The cost of adapting to climate change could be significantly reduced if we can harness that, and encourage greater provision of these public goods,” she said.

When Hallie and Emma first met, they were surprised to find that they both knew cases where people were acting in this way. Emma had heard tell of farmers in the UK and France who let their fields be flooded to protect others. Meanwhile Hallie knew that small coffee growers in Mexico deliberately encouraged a greater variety of plants to increase soil stability and reduce the risk of landslides in an area prone to hurricanes. “We then became increasingly interested and started finding evidence it wasn’t just the two of us having