Adapt and cut emissions

This post by Christina Larson at TNR takes on the question of adaptation to climate change, raising a number of interesting points, including this notion of how to choose which coastline, species, or community to save from destruction and who will decide. Good question. Larson also points out that adaptation has long been a dirty word among environmentalists, and I can attest to that. I spent a year working in the environmental nonprofit world, and adaptation and sacrifice were both third-rail subjects. You just didn't talk about them unless you wanted a fight. Yet it seems obvious to me that in-between measures will be absolutely necessary in addressing and, yes, adjusting to climate change.

On a related subject, for all the well-meaning talk about making the transition to hybrid vehicles and even electric cars, few people seem interested in addressing the question of cars that are already on the road. The millions of existing motor vehicles are not going to simply disappear. Where is the research or even the discussion about how to lessen the emissions from these vehicles short of simply driving less (which, in some cases, isn't really possible) or taking cars with internal combustion engines off the road (which certainly isn't? Not everyone (and in this economy, practically no one) is going to be able to buy an electric car just because it appears on the market. I'm all for putting more hybrids and electrics on the road, and I'm certainly for investing in public transit in a serious way, but those are long-term solutions. What do we do in the short term?