Planning Infrastructure For Climate Change

"For many Americans, global warming is a distant concern, something that might not affect them for decades."

"But when you're designing infrastructure to last the better part of a century, the future is now."

"Bridges and other heavy structures are being designed and built today to keep doing their thing until late in the 21st century — a time when atmospheric scientists expect our world to have a dramatically different climate."

"By the middle of this century, if not much sooner, bridges, tunnels, levees and sewage systems in the Pacific Northwest are expected to face temperatures, precipitation patterns and sea levels unlike those the region's infrastructure has weathered in the past."