By Terry Hansen, Hales Corner WI
(December 17, 2021)
The American Society of Civil Engineers heralded President Biden’s Nov. 15 signing of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill as “a historic bipartisan achievement that represents the largest investment in our nation’s critical infrastructure in a generation or more.”
The organization’s praise for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) is not surprising, as it estimated the U.S. infrastructure investment deficit to be $2.59 trillion over 10 years. According to the ASCE:
“Poor roads and airports mean travel times increase. An aging electric grid and inadequate water distribution make utilities unreliable. Problems like these translate into higher costs for businesses to manufacture and distribute goods and provide services. These higher costs, in turn, get passed along to workers and families.”
The IIJA’s designation of $47 billion for climate resilience, including flood control, is crucial. To quote Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), coauthor of the bill’s climate adaptation provisions:
“There’s people living in Livingston Parish, for example, flooded in 2016, whose lives — everything in their life was destroyed. The pictures of their children, the wedding dress in which they married, the home in which they lived, which had never flooded before — the fact that we are helping our fellow Americans avoid that gives me an incredible sense of satisfaction.”
Although $47 billion for adaptation has been called transformational, it’s a fraction of the sum needed. An October report by First Street Foundation, a flood research group, concludes that a quarter of our nation’s critical infrastructure, such as airports, hospitals and power stations, is at risk of becoming inoperable due to flooding made worse by climate change.
Regarding the value of preparing for climate-related risks, the Fourth National Climate Assessment asserts: “Estimates of adaptation costs range from tens to hundreds of billions of dollars per year, but are expected to save several times that over the long run.” For example, using sandbags to protect homes in South Florida can have a benefit-cost ratio of 20 to 1, while levees and seawalls along the Gulf Coast can have a benefit-cost ratio of 2.3 to 1 for refineries and petrochemical plants.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change views funding for climate resilience as an investment in avoided costs. According to Brian O’Callaghan, coauthor of the United Nations Adaptation Gap report: “Investing in climate adaptation is a bit like getting insurance for a known event. We pay $1 today to save ourselves $10 tomorrow.”
While the bipartisan infrastructure law provides protection for our communities, ports and roads from climate hazards, the Build Back Better Act, which is being considered by the Senate, would spend over $500 billion on clean energy projects and incentives to curtail greenhouse gas emissions and avoid worst-case climate scenarios.
Carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, and the more we emit, the greater the impacts will become. The 2019 report, A Climate Security Plan for America: A Presidential Plan for Combating the Security Risks of Climate Change, warns:
“It cannot be assumed that the U.S. will naturally adapt to the security risks of climate change in the future. The President has a responsibility to protect our national security from future climate threats by ensuring they never come to pass.”
The foresight demonstrated by the climate provisions of the Build Back Better agenda is refreshing during a time that’s often characterized by a short-termism that is penny wise, but pound foolish. Implementing these policies would signify U.S. leadership and be a critical step in the climate fight.
Terry Hansen
Hales Corners, Wis. 53130
https://www.axios.com/flood-
First Street Foundation report (Arizona data starts on p. 22.)
https://assets.firststreet.
https://climateandsecurity.
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6 Comments
It is just too late in the day to go through the trouble to deconstruct all this.
If documented floods and other major weather events in our recent 150 year past were not more severe than what we have recently experienced (hint…they were) then you could start buying this stuff .
“Build Back Better”, the title of this article is not the bill that passed. What passed was the infrastructure bill. “Build Back Better” was an insane bill that is now dead, spending money we don’t have and handing the 1% a big paycheck amoung other stupid things.
1 point, what’s wrong with C02. Without it life doesn’t exist. Several 100 million years ago, before coal plants etc, CO2 was 2,000 PPM vs today at 380 to 400, and the earth was warm and lush. Plants like CO2.
And to think you can give politicians $100s billions of tax dollars to fix “climate change” when they can’t stop a100,000+ overdose deaths, primarily from Fentanyl and our country being overrun by the cartels and illegals you’re just kidding yourself.
Thank God for Mike .. why listen to people that Dedicate their life to science particular climate scientists. Not trying to be rude but Mike thinks his ultra Simplistic Description of why there is no climate change is ridiculous. According to Mike he KNOWS better. Reminds me of a group that lost the Fire board election….cause THEY thought they knew something about the fire service…..once again more the Firefighters with 30plus years of experience….Just because you say you know better and call out experts, who you think your smarter then, doesn’t make it true.
Hey I don’t know any thing about the tech behind Dish Network but I’m pretty sure I can come up with some “simplistic” reason why they are doing it wrong
Yea Mike who needs clean air and fresh water! Amiright! Pollution is the way to go!
Hoping that was an ignorant enough rebuttal for you?
Right Mr. Common Sense. Saddle our children and their children’s children with a debt from your tree hugging generation that will cripple their life…That’s the answer and the reason why our president’s approval ratings are plummeting. The Build Back Socialism agenda was a Sanders & company bridge to far..thank God!
Like Mr Schroeder, I really don’t have time to go thru this article with FACTs that prove Biden’s Build Back Better is BS.
First of all, the whole climate change scenario is based on a computer model and nothing else. It is a theory only as good as the computer programmer’s biases.
Secondly, Build Back Better – a term given to us by the globalists and banksters – implies that the whole system is set to implode and fall like the Tower tarot card. The blind leftists are leading the charge to tear down America and all it’s values. Only when America is completely destroyed can it be “built back” and better is a matter of opinion. This is the same phrase used by those who currently have their boots on our collective necks.
Build Back Better is evil and satanic. Use lower case b -bbb – and it looks like 666.
And who will be left to build America back up when Biden’s policies are to keep workers home and lower the GDP of the country? who will be left after millions begin dying of the COVID vaccines (which will be blamed on Omicron, a disease that is a side-effect of the deadly jab)?
Right now America is being INVADED. Over 200 MILLION invaders have crossed the borders since Biden has been in office. Last Tuesday, one of these invaders was a known terrorists from Saudi Arabia – here to join a cell in the southwest. These INVADERS are not immigrants. They are crossing our borders illegally, bringing with them disease, terrorism, and anti-American attitudes. They are coming and the leftists are doling out money, food, homes, and worst of all – giving them the right to VOTE! Joe Biden wants to give families $250k – our Veterans should be so lucky. Our homeless should be so lucky.
The democrats want civil war. They need it because the CCP Chinese have already lined their pockets with money, gifts, and promises. What they don’t know is that the CCP Chinese can not be trusted – they are NOT our friends.
As the Evergrande economy sinks in, the first part of the new year will be devastating for many who use banks and credit cards. The grace period of not paying mortgages has ended and we are soon to see even more homeless families. The grace period of college loans has ended and we are soon to see economic collapse among most of the middle class. This is what the democrats want in their fake Build Back Better plan.
They want all Americans to be hooked up to the internet of things where they will be unable to think for themselves. They want all Americans to be COMPLETELY reliant on the government for everything. Using the COVID vaccine, they destroy the human body immune system so that every few months everyone will need a “booster” shot or the body won’t be able to fight off disease. Millions will die. Millions – perhaps Billions will die around the world so that everyone will bow down to the One World Government.
We’re not having it, which is why, coming in 2022, there will be war. Stock up now.
Keep your friends and family close and enjoy the season because we really don’t know how much time we have left.
More Qanon nonsense from JB presently called JJ. Not one (1) one of her cosmic “predictions” have Materialized. Not even the Q Propaganda that children are eaten at pizza places… sad. BTW Trump(you savior) is presently promoting the covid Vaccine!! God bless him for creating and Presently endorsing the vaccine..