An interesting article from the guardian, a UK newspaper, talks about a new government report that indicates the effects climate change could have on the UK's infrastructure - from rail services to telecommunications.
Caroline Spelman, the secretary of state for the environment of the UK, reports that hotter temperatures, rainstorms and increasingly extreme summers and winters can all affect your average connection from things like a fluctuating wireless signal to damaged underground cables from increased subsidence.
If this were to happen, it's likely that the UK wouldn't be the only country affected, but an interesting thing to note is that this is one of the few issues, when it comes to climate change, that would affect more developed countries worse than developing ones. Furthermore, your Internet connection dropping out may well be the least of your worries.
With wetter winters comes an increased risk of floods, which many power stations (both coal and nuclear) weren't designed to withstand. New road surfaces will need to be laid to prevent the tarmac from melting, power cables will need upgrading or they may expand and sag during a particularly hot summer.
Obviously, none of these issues are new or unknown to many hotter, wetter countries, but the problem is that much of the existing UK infrastructure was laid down decades ago, before climate change was known or considered a pressing issue.
More details, information and the report itself can be found on the defra website.
17 Comments - Add comment