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Science 6 April 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5821, p. 17
DOI: 10.1126/science.1143220
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Editorial

A Two-Pronged Climate Strategy

Rosina M. Bierbaum1 and Peter H. Raven2

A sensible strategy to minimize the damages from anthropogenic climate change has two objectives: mitigate the pace and ultimate magnitude of the changes that occur and adapt to the changes that cannot be avoided. To underline this two-pronged approach, the recent report Confronting Climate Change, prepared for the United Nations (UN) by an international panel we co-chaired, was subtitled Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable (www.unfoundation.org/SEG/). On 27 February 2007, we presented UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with this urgent call for new levels of commitment and coordination by the UN and its member states to avoid the worst climate-change dangers while there is still time.

1Rosina M. Bierbaum is co-chair (with Peter H. Raven) of the SEG on Climate Change and Global Development, and professor and dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan. rbierbau{at}umich.edu

2Peter H. Raven is co-chair (with Rosina M. Bierbaum) of the SEG on Climate Change and Global Development, and president of the Missouri Botanical Garden. praven{at}nas.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)