Letter | Infrastructure upgrades needed on climate change - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Letter | Infrastructure upgrades needed on climate change - Santa Cruz Sentinel
I was happy to see the recently released National Climate Assessment on the front page of the Sentinel.
While the subtitle of the article was “Warming Harming all Regions,” the report also highlights some achievements and some positive outcomes. For example, the annual greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. fell 12% between 2005 and 2019.
So we know we can make progress and we must. One problem is our transmission grid has stagnated. It takes too long to get projects approved and built and the infrastructure needs work. Write or call your representative and your senators and encourage them to co-sponsor the Big Wires Act (Building Integrated Grids with Inter-Regional Energy Supply). H.R. 5551 and S 2827 are acts that will add transmission lines, enhance technology, improve energy efficiency to reduce peak demand and expedite the generation and transportation of renewable electricity.
Without infrastructure upgrades, many of the climate change upgrades that are available in the Inflation Reduction Act will be wasted.
— Donna Ramos, Santa Cruz
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”