Saturday, August 10, 2019

It's Not All Killer Heatwaves and Crop-Killing Drought. Another Facet of Climate Change.


To many, perhaps even most people, the impact of climate change on infrastructure is not well understood. We've seen the dramatic stuff - cars stuck in flooded underpasses or roads washed out - but climate change is going to make its presence known where we might not expect it.

Take Britain's Luton airport. It's a newish terminal that worked quite well - until it didn't. It was designed to withstand certain conditions but it wasn't designed to handle today's conditions and so it became overwhelmed by a torrential deluge.



See, Luton airport is not Anthropocene-friendly. It was not designed for the era in which we now live.

Where I live our homes, or at least the recent structures, are built to withstand earthquakes given that we never know when the Big One will hit. Those preparations aren't going to be of much comfort when it comes to flooding or wildfires or any other impacts climate change has in store for us.  And don't count on your governments to intervene proactively. They haven't got the funds for a massive overhaul of essential infrastructure for something that may or may not occur some time.

Sorry, you're on your own. Just do stay away from Luton when it's raining.

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