The laws that attempt to reduce the negative effects of climate change and promote clean air, clean water, and sustainability are well known. But what about laws to deal with the climate change that will occur regardless of these efforts? The Law of Adaptation to Climate Change takes a sweeping look at the current and proposed legal aspects of coping with climate change--from drought, extreme precipitation, heat waves, and wild fires to global shifts in temperature, sea level, water and food supply, coastal conditions, infrastructure, ecosystems, and human health and economies.

Applicable laws exist at all levels (international, national, state, local) and in different forms (constitutions, statutes, agency regulations, judicial decisions, private agreements, voluntary guidelines); they are not only uncoordinated but collectively embody numerous contradictions and inevitable gaps. This state-of-the-art compendium examines how laws are being modified, finessed, or imagined to deal with the impacts of climate change, both in the United States and around the globe.

Chapter authors have significant experience in the legal aspects of climate change and are drawn from private practice, government, and academia. When it is not known how the law will, or even should, respond, these authorities suggest informed possibilities for future action.