Climate Change Is Making the U.S. Poorer Than It Realizes
To protect American infrastructure, it is essential to accelerate the clean energy transition and adopt a prevention-first approach to extreme weather.
Climate change is a destructive force.
Photographer: Maranie R. Staab/Getty ImagesThe trillion-dollar spending package that the Senate has passed along to the House is being described as a once-in-a-generation fix for America’s deteriorating infrastructure. It should be viewed as only the first in a long series of such big investments, because Earth’s climate is changing faster than America’s existing roads, bridges and other infrastructure can withstand.
In the past 12 months, weather-related events have illustrated what’s happening. Salem, Oregon, hit 117 degrees Fahrenheit. The West is coping with its worst drought on record. In February, a polar vortex drove temperatures in Texas to 50 degrees below normal.