By Robert S. Boyd

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

WASHINGTON - Install massive steel barriers in the waters around New York City to ward off storm surges as sea levels rise. Plant heat-friendly corn instead of heat-sensitive wheat. Air-condition stifling apartments to prevent widespread heat-related deaths. Require new buildings to be set well back from the seashore or raised on stilts.

These are some of the ideas that scientists and engineers are discussing to help the world adapt to climate change. No matter what efforts are made to slow global warming, even many skeptics say that further temperature increases are inevitable.

As a result, adaptation - actions that individuals, companies or governments take to reduce damage from climate change - is gaining more attention from researchers and policymakers.

"We have already bought into a certain amount of climate change," said Jay Gulledge, a senior researcher at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Arlington, Va. "Adaptation is obviously something we're going to have to do."

"Without adaptation, the consequences of global warming and sea level rise would be disastrous," the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in its most recent five-year report...

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(Thx KeelyNet)