Climate Change Adaptation Strategies

This assignment requires you to critically examine diverse responses to the global challenge of climate change. Explore governmental policies aimed at mitigation and adaptation, analyze business strategies employed to address environmental concerns, and investigate the role of individual actions in shaping a sustainable future. The analysis should consider both positive and negative aspects of these responses, highlighting their effectiveness and potential limitations.

Spanish Climate Change Policy and its Effects to Fishery and Tourism Industry 1
SPANISH CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY AND ITS EFFECTS TO FISHERY AND TOURISM
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Spanish Climate Change Policy and its Effects to Fishery and Tourism Industry 2
Spanish Local/Industry/National Climate Policy That Causes Global Warming to Occur in Spain
and Its Effect Spain's Fishery and Tourism Industry
Introduction
Changes in climatic conditions is a major determinant of tourists’ activities in different parts of
the world. Tourists make decisions depending on the whether condition of a place. Climate
change refers to the changes experienced in the weather patterns that further affects water bodies
and land surface activities. It is a condition that can be long term or short term depending with
the frequency of occurrence. Weather, on the other hand is the atmospheric state of a place. The
weather can be described further by aspects such as sunshine, rain, heat or wind of a place.
Tourists find it challenging at times since they expect specific climatic conditions but instead
find the opposite weather conditions at the destinations. For instance, if the sea temperature
increases, there will be a change in rainfall pattern as well. This will make some areas become
drier while other will become more wet. This is an evidence that tourist activities will be affected
either negatively or positively. It is, therefore, an important exercise for tourists to understand the
weather pattern of a place before making decisions to travel. It is also evident that some fisheries
stay deep below the water where temperature is very low while other are adapted to stay near the
water surface where the water temperature is slightly warm. The change in the temperature of sea
water will, therefore, affect the movement of mammals that live in water.
Responses to climate change
Changing weather patterns of a place affects tourists’ comfortability especially those who want
to explore winter sport, beaches and nature segments. This also affects tourists’ travel decisions
to a place of choice (Baker, et al, 2012). The Spanish government, which is the main beneficiary
of the funds given by tourists argues that environmental experts within Spain and the weather
men should give accurate information so that when tourists travel to Spain, they do not have to

Spanish Climate Change Policy and its Effects to Fishery and Tourism Industry 3
be disappointed by the weather conditions therein. On the other hand, meteorologists argue that
weather pattern changes without notice. According to the change in climatic conditions within
Spain also affects agricultural activities as well (Costello, et al, 2009). The overall effect is that
tourists may avoid going to certain places within Spain or totally avoid Spanish lands due to the
unpredictable weather patterns. When this happens, it only means a loss on the government’s
side since the revenue that is normally collected from such activities will not be collected
anymore (Eriksen, et al, 2011).
Business people whose personal income is directly or indirectly linked to the availability of
tourists in Spain have put the government on toes about the effects. There is loss of job since the
tourists are not flocking the Spain’s coastal regions. Most business people have based their
businesses to the availability of tourists at coastal regions. This means that absence of tourists
will render their businesses un-operational. Climatic change of a certain magnitude may make
the existing tourists become uncomfortable hence opt to leave the country. Economically, this
reduces the total revenue to the government more so from tourism sector. It is also evident that
the total taxes collected from citizens will reduce drastically since many citizens are not
employed anymore, they do not have any source of income and, therefore, they are not
transacting in any way (Garnaut, 2011). Economically it means that there is no cash flow from
such a sector, thus reducing the overall income
Business people do like certain whether patterns since they bring positivity in tourism sector in
Spain. For instance, the change in the speed of wind up to above 25 kilometers per hour, triggers
boat racing activities (Gilley, 2012). This, therefore, attracts more people including the tourists
who come in to take part in the exercise and give out money to the concerned people as
exchange. However, some economic activities will not take place as needed since that speed of

Spanish Climate Change Policy and its Effects to Fishery and Tourism Industry 4
wind is dangerous and may cause destructions to buildings, structures and so on (Gore &
Robinson, 2009).
Spread of diseases – some diseases thrive and are only seen in warmer climatic conditions than
in cold areas. Once people acquire diseases in different countries due to the climatic condition
found there, they spread the disease to other destinations in their own mother lands. This is
because the tourists travel frequently in different countries thus spreading the illness. This is one
way in which countries that earlier on did not have cases of strange diseases end up with
unknown or strange ailments. (Gössling, et al, 2012) For instance, mosquitoes that carry malaria
are known to live in warm areas. However, malaria at times is reported to have attacked people
who live in cold countries. This is normally due to the movement of people in and out of the
countries. Once it is known by many tourists that a certain country is prone to illnesses, however
how rich is such a county is in terms of tourists’ attraction sites and destination, they will simply
not come (Hellmann, et al, 2008). This means bad to the economy of a country. Tourists like and
prefers destinations that are safe and free from any life threatening ailments. Malaria for
example, is rampant in Spain due to the high temperature found there.
Non-governmental organizations have taken part in the debate about climate change and its
effects to the economy. Suggestions have since been forwarded for a proper action to be taken by
the government (Jeswani, Wehrmeyer & Mulugetta, 2008). In collaboration with other state
departments, non-governmental organizations require the government to adopt climate
adaptation program. An example of this program is aquaculture development. However,
economic experts warn that the exercise may not work as planned and bring the impact that was
intended. They say that climate adaptation will bring down the overall prices of food found from
water (Jones & Levy, 2007). This, according to the economists, may further bring down the
revenue that comes with sea foods. However, these organisations point out that the government

Spanish Climate Change Policy and its Effects to Fishery and Tourism Industry 5
through economists in the land, need to expand their research on the same so that they be specific
about the impacts, whether negative or positive, and to what extent the adaptation program be
(Moss, et al, 2010).
Climate change in Spain have been characterised by increase in the level of salt in sea water.
This occurs due to the increased temperature of sea water as well. Some types of fish, especially
those consumed by human being, are adapted to live in fresh water areas. Increased salinity in
the aquatic habitat, therefore, means that some types of fish cannot, therefore, survive in such
salty conditions. This leads to the death or migration of most of the fisheries that are needed for
economic development (North, 2010). There are types of fisheries that live in salty water and can
adapt to increased water temperature as well. An example is shark, which is another type of fish.
Tourists are attracted to watch shark while moving along waters. They (shark) jump up at very
high heights and can be seen by people standing at a distance place. Tourists, therefore, pay good
money to be allowed to attend such activities and watch amazing move by the sharks (Qi, et al,
2008). This means that there are mixed reactions from people who need consumable fish to
increase in number versus the people who value tourism activities. This is mainly because the
two types of fisheries cannot survive under the same condition, one must eliminate itself and,
therefore, affecting one side of the economy in the country.
High concentration of dark clouds in the skies triggers heavy rainfall on the land. According to
climate observers, too much on the rain may lead to floods as experienced before in Spain. When
excess floods are experienced, a lot of destruction to both private and public property is evident.
Among others, properties that get destroyed include but not limited to; semi-permanent house
and permanent houses built on areas that are prone to land slide, destruction of tree, mass
landslides which causes death to both humans and animals (Stern, 2010). Such a destruction
causes economic downfall and stagnation to the country. This is because the Spanish government

Spanish Climate Change Policy and its Effects to Fishery and Tourism Industry 6
spend much time rebuilding the destroyed structure. A lot of money is also invested in such
activities which, therefore, means that small savings that was available is being used to redo
what had been done already. Economically, such a country ends up borrowing money form
world banks or other financial institutions, depending on the level of destruction (Tol, 2009).
This simply means that the country in question will have slow or stunted development rate. Non-
governmental organizations, therefore, argue that the government need to train its citizens on the
good places to put up house and business premises. According to them, they need the
government to provide good lands that are fit for human habitat. However, the government may
seem reluctant about the whole idea, citing lack of money and high cost of implementing the
same to nearly quarter of its citizens (Weaver, 2011).
Conclusion
Climate change is a key player in economic development of a country. Spanish government have
tried almost all means to maintain the economic stability of the country over time. However, due
to the changing climatic conditions, the situation has not been easy to maintain though. Changes
in climatic patterns may not be easy to predict as it used to be sometime back. This is attributed
to the global warming that has since affected a better part of the world to date. According to
reports by economists, change in climatic patterns and conditions do affect different sectors of
the economy, with tourism and fisheries being the most areas of concern. Tourism plays a big
role in economic development in Spain. Tourists pay large sums of money to enjoy attraction site
within different towns in Spain, they pay individual people good sums of money to perform
some traditional activities such as dances and singing and many more. This means that the
presence of tourists in Spain have changed the living standards of many communities over there
and improved the livelihoods by a big margin. Due to this improvement, many non-
governmental organizations have piled pressure on the government to implement ways to

Spanish Climate Change Policy and its Effects to Fishery and Tourism Industry 7
improve tourism sector in the country so that the lives of the local people and the economy of the
country can continue improving daily. They also call on the government and all the concerned
bodies (especially environmental sector) to come up with ways to reduce the carbon emissions
into the air, which reports indicates that also contributes to the further deterioration of the
economy. This is due to the carbon monoxide produced by the large number of vehicles that
move around to transport tourists from one place to another. It should also be considered that
these smoke contribute in the increase in water temperature and addition of salty compounds in
to the water. This process is known to drive away the types of fish and other water bodies that
are important for human activities and for the food purposes. Controlling the spread of dirty
smokes across water bodies also mean that there will be reduced pile up of smoke that causes
heavy downpour. There will be reduced cases of effects of flood cases and so the country’s
economy will have stabilized over time.

Spanish Climate Change Policy and its Effects to Fishery and Tourism Industry 8
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