Climate Change and Adaptation
As our climate changes, we know we must adapt.
Are we making the right choices?
Introduction
Why does Climate Change and Adaptation need risk science?
Climate change is, period.
For all but a few, climate change is a given. Scientists worldwide agree that current evidence of climate change is overwhelming and irrefutable. It is the defining issue of the next century. Entire companies and organizations are devoting 100% of their efforts to combatting climate change; or at least, they are trying to mitigate it and find ways of adapting to it.
The greatest obstacle to climate change is embodied in Mahatma Gandhi's quote below: we are the problem. We are not changing the way we hope that the world will change. As it often the case in humanity, we choose to live a life of comfort and plenty and resist adopting simpler more sustainable practices.
Compounding our own inadequacies are the challenges faced by industry and government. While they are often derided for not doing enough, changing major systems is not a flick-of-the-switch action. Weaning ourselves from non-renewable resources is challenging. Finding low-waste approaches to consumption is costly. To date, we have failed to achieve our internationally agreed to greenhouse gas emission targets.
What climate change needs most is a joint effort from the public, industry, civil society, and government. The best way to stimulate a concerted joint effort is to find solutions that address the needs and expectations of all.
Working together, society will find those solutions.
"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."
by Mahatma Gandhi
RSI and Climate Change and Adaptation
RSI's Motivation
RSI appreciates the challenges of arresting climate change. RSI understands that climate change is a critical global risk issue and seeks to address this issue by applying its diverse skills in risk science to support global efforts to stop climate change.
Building on the unique RSI skillset, RSI focusses its efforts being an arbiter of solutions, rather than the proponent. Since its founding in 2006, RSI has invested in climate-related decision tools that allowed municipalities and governments to make informed choices. The Risk and Return on Investment Tool helps cities faced with flooding does just that.
Looking ahead, RSI is well-positioned to support climate change mitigation and adaptation analysis. More so than making recommendations, RSI will focus its energies on evaluating action plans, energy solutions, health policies and infrastructure schemes. As an international leader in risk science, RSI remains committed to supporting the development and implementation of effective climate change solutions.
What is our expertise in Climate Change and Adaptation?
RSI has been engaged in a wide variety of climate change activities over the last decade. RSI has evaluated alternative climate change mitigation strategies, and developed a capacity in climate change analytics to better characterize current and future impacts of global change.
Integrating its expertise in risk science and climate analytics, RSI provides assistance to clients in identifying and evaluating diverse solutions to climate change challenges.In providing such solutions, Risk Sciences International is able to engage international experts in climate change from its well-established network.
Serving You
Risk Sciences International focusses on two specific services within the climate change sector.
The first, and primary offering, is that of being an arbiter of decisions. Companies, government authorities, and organizations are making difficult choices related to climate change. What should be cut? What should be added? How much is enough, and how much is too much? What are the risks associated with the decision? RSI is able to offer independent, objective analysis of options being considered by clients to support their efforts to mitigate climate change, both locally and globally.
Secondly, RSI builds decision support tools that help decision-makers to make the tough climate change choices. These tools can be extremely helpful in informing and validating complex, fast-moving scenarios that lead to consequential decisions regarding the future of our planet.
RSI Sectors
Chemical and Product Safety
RSI staff and affiliated scientists have an extensive background in epidemiology, toxicology, and pharmacology, that can help identify and characterize chemical risk and product safety. Clients include a variety of public and private sector organizations. Epidemiology: RSI has analyzed large and complex data sets to explore environmental, occupational...
Public Health
RSI has extensive experience modelling the risks and consequences associated with infectious disease spread amongst human and animal populations. We have worked with public health organizations in more than 175 countries to safeguard public health and help respond to potential threats to the population. RSI has been involved in a variety of projects...
Food Safety and Defense
Risk Sciences International has a team of internationally recognized experts with over 100 years of combined experience in human health risk assessment, quantitative microbiological risk assessment, and risk assessment methodology. RSI staff and affiliated scientists have a wealth of experience in the development of quantitative risk assessments and...
Climate Change and Adaptation
Risk Sciences International has extensive and unique experience in those key domains required to help organizations adapt to climate change: applied meteorology, engineering climatology, climate science, hydrology, social and behavioral science, risk assessment and management, and IT-based decision-support. RSI provides climate risk assessment and...
Agriculture
Approaches to measuring, characterizing, and managing risks and opportunities in the agricultural sector continue to evolve with time, thanks in part to the use of new technologies in the collection of data, and advancements in agriculture-related science and computing power for risk analysis. RSI’s experience in the Agricultural sector ranges...
Drug Safety and Effectiveness Monitoring
Risk Sciences International has significant experience managing drug safety to help related stakeholders ensure the health and well-being of the public. RSI has experience analyzing a wide variety of drugs across all demographics, using a range of analytic and modeling techniques including physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling. RSI’s...
Public Safety and Security
Risk Sciences International has comprehensive experience working with organizations to enhance public safety and security. Areas of expertise include non-biological hazards often associated with occupational health and safety issues, as well as emergency preparedness activities focusing on natural disaster, disease epidemic, or malicious acts. RSI has...
Urban Risk and Resiliency
The planning, design, and operation of the urban space requires multidisciplinary research and decision support to understand and mitigate the impact of hazards, natural or man-made, malicious or accidental. Risk Sciences International applies its expertise in extreme weather and climate change, infrastructure vulnerability...
Urban Risk and Resiliency
Risk Sciences International has a vast portfolio of urban-related projects for major agencies, corporations and organizations.
Public Safety and Security
RSI works with regulators to determine appropriate, risk-based monitoring activities for risk controls for daily risks. For large scale risks, RSI have developed methods and tools that support emergency response planning and preparedness.
Drug Safety and Effectiveness Monitoring
RSI helps clients to understand the evolving benefit and risk profiles of drugs through analysis of contemporary and up to date databases involving large real world populations.
Climate Change and Adaptation
RSI has been engaged in a wide variety of climate change activities over the last decade. RSI has evaluated alternative climate change mitigation strategies, and developed a capacity in climate change analytics to better characterize current and future impacts of global change.
Chemical and Product Safety
Risk Sciences International has long worked with governments to understand safe levels of chemicals in our environment. Unfortunately, many of the products and chemicals in common use in our society have not been adequately evaluated.
Agriculture
RSI’s expertise in the Agricultural sector ranges from modelling the risks to livestock from transboundary diseases, supporting a safe food supply through risk assessment of pathogens in production, exploring the changing risks from pathogens in crops as the climate changes, development of risk-based decision-support applications for the management of agricultural emergencies at the national level, and supporting development of risk assessment frameworks for consideration of novel organisms.
