This sequel to "The Challenge of Adapting to Climate Change: King County Brings Local Action to a Global Threat," C16-09-1906.0, follows up a question left hanging at the end of that case. King County Executive Ron Sims, the top elected official in Washington State’s largest and most diverse county, has decided to take a high profile leadership role on the climate change issue—locally and on the national stage—by tackling the nearly uncharted realm of “adaptation”: preparing at the local level for impacts of climate change considered inevitable. That case ends by posing the students a challenge: having held a regional conference about adaptation, what’s the most effective way to move the issue forward, both locally and on the national stage? To help jumpstart the discussion, the case offers five different “possibilities” prospectively, including a ten-fold budget increase in flood prevention and management; a guidebook for local government about the adaptation issue; a public alliance with the Marshall Islands, in danger of disappearing due to sea level rise; creation of a countywide climate plan, including mitigation and adaptation strategies; and a political question about whether to issue a dramatic list of new commitments intended to reduce the county’s contribution to global warming at a climate change event sponsored by the City of Seattle.

This sequel reveals which actions the County took, and describes the outcome of each in brief. It also includes two exhibits: a summary of the “goals and actions” outlined in the adaptation section of the 2007 King County Climate Plan and a list of executive orders intended to reduce the county’s contribution to global warming. In addition to addressing certain generic leadership challenges—how to navigate the difficult intersection of politics and science, how to think about uncertainty, how to plan for the long term, how to prove effective on both local and national stage—the case has the advantage of introducing readers to a compelling contemporary public issue, sure to grow in urgency worldwide.

A flexible video documentary, "Choosing to Adapt: King County Tackles Climate Change," C16-09-1906.9 (thirteen segments of 2 to 4 minutes each, total runtime 00:41:00, which may be played chronologically or in other combinations) brings to life the issues and strategies described in the case through interviews with key players, including Sims, and visuals of the area and of specific projects.