Blame Climate Not Politicians for Weather-Beaten Cities

Extreme weather events have had big city mayors across the world scrambling to clean up messes and prove their cities aren't falling apart. But the real issue is the climate, not the politics.

1 minute read

December 30, 2010, 9:00 AM PST

By Nate Berg


The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal looks at how changing climate will continue to affect city operation, and how citizens are going to have to learn to not misdirect the blame.

"What you need to know is that your city -- pretty much wherever it is -- was built for a climate that it may no longer have. That's going to mean tough commutes during the winter and spending more money on air conditioning in the summer. It's going to mean that your city shuts down more often because some freaky thing happened that no one can remember happening in their lifetimes. It's going to mean the power's going to go out because the electric system in your area wasn't designed to handle the stresses it will be put under. Cities will have to get less efficient and more resilient. Redundancies will have to be built into systems that previously seemed to work just fine."

Wednesday, December 29, 2010 in The Atlantic

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