Its not just the science

An interesting lecture by an NYU Professor visiting Abu Dabi (and reported on by a local blogger) confronts the inconvenient truth that we simply do not have enough information to make easy business decisions on adaptation to climate change. So let's not hang it all on the science (important though that is), but include the vast range of public policy inputs and other business and cultural factors in working out our investment strategies for adaptation.

The blogger then asks:

"In Abu Dhabi's case, should the Government be thinking of moving the emirate's capital inland to its original seat, Al Ain? How should Abu Dhabi's vital coastal power and water desalination plants be protected? And what about the big industrial complexes on the Gulf coast?

In Dubai, what will happen to the huge Jebel Ali container port? Could Dubai's residents be reduced to eking out a living from offering well-heeled travellers tours of 'the Atlantis of the Gulf'?

The point is that science cannot currently provide the answers, although it may be able to do so in future. More data are needed, and we had better get cracking on making the required but difficult observations.