Climate adaptation is the concept that human and "natural" systems must accept and embrace change as a result of realized and future shifts in climate trends. An obvious example is the abandonment of Pacific island chains like Tuvalu as a result of sea-level rise and the evacuation of the country's citizens to New Zealand. Coastal areas worldwide are facing similar adaptation issues. My focus is on freshwater systems worldwide. Because of my graduate training, I tend to think first about conservation issues, but my undergraduate degree was in cultural anthropology, and I must admit to being very moved by seeing human impacts. My work thus explicitly includes economic development and freshwater. As near as I can tell, my work falls into a couple of general categories:
1. Freshwater climate change conservation and development philosopher. This is essentially the strangest aspect of my job and the one I least predicted; I also suspect it will disappear from my work in a few months or a year. Here, I discuss with freshwater-interested WWF staff, development agencies, other NGOs, and various countries' government staff about how climate change represents a significant break with the past in terms of both theory and praxis. I've been giving a twelve-slide presentation that typically takes me between one and two hours to get through given the number of questions and the level of interaction it inspires.
2. Practical engagement with and support for program staff within WWF on freshwater issues. Most of this work is focused on four core basins: the Thames (UK), the Pantanal (Brazil), the Yangtze/Chiang Jiang (China), and Ganga (India). But I also provide support for other freshwater systems within the WWF network. Here, I meet with national program officers to talk about specific projects and help spread information from one project and nation to other projects and nations.
3. Outreach on global climate change issues. So far, this work has been expanding rapidly. For instance, I've spoken on five college campuses about climate adaptation work. But within one recent single week, I spoke to a group of diplomats and ambassadors, senior NGO managers, and people who do real conservation work on the ground and get muddy doing it about freshwater climate change impacts and strategies. Each of these audiences requires very different kind of information and perspectives.