Mitigation Versus Adaptation

Lab Brief #13

🎯 Your mission

Run the experiment. Find out what really happens.

⚡ The twist

Weather isn't random — it's just complicated.

What you'll learn

Mitigation reduces the emissions causing warming; adaptation reduces the harm from warming already locked in. Both are needed, they compete for the same budgets, and confusing the two produces policies that do neither well.

Key words

mitigation
Action that reduces the cause of a problem.
adaptation
Action that reduces the harm from a problem already happening.

Make a hypothesis first

Before you observe: what shape will it leave?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

policy cards
notebook

⚠️ Safety first

Have an adult check your set-up before you start, and tidy everything away afterwards.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Think about what you just learned: say what "mitigation" and "adaptation" mean in your own words before you start.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Sort twelve real climate policies into mitigation and adaptation. Pick one of each and identify who pays and who benefits in each case.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Question 1 of 2

Building a sea wall is an example of:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 2

Mitigation acts on the problem's:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🌊 The deepest part of the ocean is deeper than Mount Everest is tall.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 2 right.

Next: The Carbon Cycle Under Pressure All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: Today's weather, tomorrow's beach, next century's coastline — all this.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Look at the sky for 5 minutes and try to predict tomorrow's weather.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “What's the slowest change you can think of?”

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Mitigation Versus Adaptation

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Mitigation Versus Adaptation

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