Resilience, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies to Combat Climate Change for a Sustainable Future

Abstract

This review delves into climate change resilience and brings forth climate change mitigation strategies and adaptation mechanisms for a sustainable future. Climate change is an unprecedented major global threat. It is an unavoidable phenomenon attributed largely to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by burning fossil fuels. When atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) levels are higher than the permissible level, it causes the Greenhouse effect and, consequently, rising temperatures, the world experiences heat waves. Cutting GHG emissions can slow the pace of global warming - this is known as mitigation. Climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies can impact genotoxicity by reducing exposure to genotoxic agents like air pollutants and UV radiation. Wildfires occur uncontrollably, generating particulate matter (PMs) that easily penetrate deep inside the lungs. Burning fossil fuels can pile up PMs, and smoke causes serious air pollution that harms human health and threatens organisms. Escalate vector-borne diseases since warmer climate favours insects’ arthropods (mosquitoes, mites, ticks) reproducing profusely. The reported spread of waterborne illnesses (dermatitis, conjunctivitis, ENT) infections. Extreme climatic conditions include floods due to melting glaciers, low-lying coastal areas/islands submerged under the sea, draughts, and hurricanes. Habitat destruction of vulnerable ecosystems can cause biodiversity loss, species extinction, and the destruction of agricultural crops (food insecurity). Earth can become a hostile place to live. Mitigation can be achieved by reducing emissions, stabilizing the levels of heat-trapping GHGs in the atmosphere, and adapting to climate change. The goal of mitigation is to avoid significant human interference with Earth's climate, “stabilize greenhouse gas levels in a timeframe sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, ensure that food production is not threatened, and to enable economic development to proceed sustainably”.