Posted on 03/11/2008 3:11:57 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
WASHINGTON (AP) — Flooded roads and subways, deformed railroad tracks and weakened bridges may be the wave of the future with continuing global warming, a new study says.
Climate change will affect every type of transportation through rising sea levels, increased rainfall and surges from more intense storms, the National Research Council said in a report released Tuesday.
Complicating matters, people continue to move into coastal areas, creating the need for more roads and services in the most vulnerable regions, the report noted.
"The time has come for transportation professionals to acknowledge and confront the challenges posed by climate change and to incorporate the most current scientific knowledge into the planning of transportation systems," said Henry Schwartz Jr., past president and chairman of the engineering firm Sverdrup/Jacobs Civil Inc., and chairman of the committee that wrote the report.
The report cites five major areas of growing threat:
_ More heat waves, requiring load limits at hot-weather or high-altitude airports and causing thermal expansion of bridge joints and rail track deformities.
_ Rising sea levels and storm surges flooding coastal roadways, forcing evacuations, inundating airports and rail lines, flooding tunnels and eroding bridge bases.
_ More rainstorms, delaying air and ground traffic, flooding tunnels and railways, and eroding road, bridge and pipeline supports.
_ More frequent strong hurricanes, disrupting air and shipping service, blowing debris onto roads and damaging buildings.
_ Rising arctic temperatures thawing permafrost, resulting in road, railway and airport runway subsidence and potential pipeline failures.
The nation's transportation system was built for local conditions based on historical weather data, but those data may no longer be reliable in the face of new weather extremes, the report warns.
The committee said proper preparation will be expensive and called on federal, state and local governments to increase consideration of climate change in transportation planning and construction.
The report notes, for example, that drier conditions are likely in the watersheds supplying the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes. The resulting lower water levels would reduce vessel shipping capacity, seriously impairing freight movements in the region, such as occurred during the drought of 1988.
Meanwhile, California heat waves are likely to increase wildfires that can destroy transportation infrastructure.
The outlook isn't all bad, however.
The report says marine transportation could benefit from more open seas in the Arctic, creating new and shorter shipping routes and reducing transport time and costs.
The report was prepared by the Transportation Research Board and the Division on Earth and Life Studies of the National Research Council. The groups are part of the National Academy of Sciences, an independent agency chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific matters.
Sponsors of the study were the Transportation Research Board, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, the Transportation Department, the Transit Cooperative Research Program, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers.
On the Net:
BTTT!
Buncha Hooey - oh yeah our Florida Hurricanes in the past two years were horrible! oops...wait, there were no hurricanes hitting Florida in the past two years. hmmmm
‘global warming’ is socialism’s trojan horse
BTTT!
paranoia will destroy ya.
Oh for God’s sake. I can hardly stand reading this junk anymore.
Transportation studies are retarded at best. This one is prehistoric.
Me too...it has gone beyond laughable to pathetic.
NAS went down the socialist rathole years ago.
“Turkey-Lurkey the sky is falling.” quote from the inspirational, The Little Red Hen.
Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
New!!: Dr. John Ray's
GREENIE WATCH
The Great Global Warming Swindle Video - back on the net!! (click here)
Ping me if you find one I've missed.
We must be entering a mini ice age, to have the warming loons this stirred up. They want their extremist, environmental policies enacted before the ignorant masses figure out they’ve been duped.
Yup. More scientists are finding their voices and speaking out about how wrong the data is, as well as the consequences for going against the “consensus.” We’re starting to see the house of cards shake. Here’s to the whole thing toppling down soon!
Repeal the Second Law of Thermodynamics! Once we do that, all the bridges will be sturdy, all the buildings strong, and all of the roads passable forever.
Call your congressman today!
glad they Swift Boated the whole article in the first sentence.
I think they are doing the “shoot the ___” scenerio before the election with all the bull articles. They know IF a (D) is in it becomes a non-issue.
I did find it amusing that the Transportation Research Board "commissioned" papers. I thought only big oil had to resort to paying money for papers (btw, someone needs to tell Lindzen he's not charging enough if he only gets $2,500 per day for consulting).
By the time jerk wrote this article, it got global cold.
Gotta write faster maroon!
Where’s that BS meter?? Oh maybe it pinned to the max and broke the needle!
Greenies, I am laughing at your climate change! I wish to increase my carbon foot print! I support greatly expanded nuclear energy use! I want expanded oil drilling wherever we find oil! I want coal converted to oil! I want oil shale used for oil! I want new refineries! I want to build another five hundred horsepower muscle car! I want OPEC in ruin! I want America ascendant in the world! I want your climate change religion thrown on the garbage heap of history! And I believe before I die I will see all this come to pass! Greenies, I am laughing at your "Climate Change"!
“Climate change will affect every...”
Fill in the blank. They like to blame all current world problems on Bush and all future problems on global warming.
I think you are right. Here’s another one:
“Global warming poses deaf threat to tropical fish”
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