Rivers and reservoirs fell to dangerous lows. It's a question haunting King County County Executive Ron Sims, who has made fighting climate change a central theme for much of his tenure as county executive and puts him on the front line of the climate-change wars: preparing for a warmer climate. The likely temperature increases are 2.5 to 8 degrees and while politicians wrangle over cutting emissions some environmentalists are focusing on preparing for changes seen as inevitable. For many, the next debate how do we live with it? The consequences of a warmer planet are enormous. A rise in the ocean of 3 feet in the next 100 to 150 years. Higher oceans would flood coastal areas, damage wetlands, as well as escalate storm surges. Climate change might outpace the ability of ecosystems to adapt. Many systems are already stressed by pollutants and ever creeping suburban sprawl. Drier dry years and wetter wet years are expected to grow more frequent. Promoting adaptation as public policy, however, is not easy. The UN report, dating back to the early 1990s, emphasized cutting emissions while ideas for adaptation were muted. The cost of implementing adaptation strategies, like higher bridges and stronger levees, was viewed as prohibitive. Now, however, for a host of reasons, the pendulum is swinging. So far, the arguments haven't resulted in many policy initiatives. According to Michele St. Martin, director of communications for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the Bush administration has allocated about $26 billion to climate-change research and technology development. A formal adaptation policy is not part of the mix, but the money allocated for improving infrastructure like flood-control systems and clean energy technologies will reduce the impact of global warming. Few other nations have done much more. Sims made good on his word by hiring the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington, who quickly highlighted the problem of melting snowpack, the area's water supply could drop 20 million gallons a day in the future. So, in April, the county broke ground on a new sewage plant, with a facility to recycle and purify sewage into water clean enough for agricultural and industrial use. About 90% of Seattle's energy comes from hydropower. If the snowpack continues to drop, a greater percentage of the supply will belong to Canada. Seattle says that there's little it can do other than continue to explore wind power and promote conservation. The heavily forested area abutting Seattle, meanwhile, is by design. Sims has been imposing restrictions on private land, like requiring green buffers remain around waterways and limiting developments. The county purchased the development rights to 90,000 acres of working timberland for $22 million. The tactics are having a negative effect on the region, opponents say, by inflating housing costs and overregulating how owners use their land. Elsewhere, preparation for global warming has taken different shapes. Many families have chosen not to return to New Orleans, and this is a form of adaptation. New York City is undergoing a citywide review of its climate vulnerabilities while moving ahead with a storm buffer made of existing and artificial wetlands. In London, city officials are bracing for more heat waves like the one that killed 35,000 Europeans in 2003, as well as summer droughts and winter floods. With threats of global skirmishes for resources looming, advocates are pushing for federal and international action. Part of the problem is that the push for adaptation has not been felt from constituents and public interest groups. In the end, adapting to a warmer world may be our only choice.