Jumping for Joy!
The United States largest infrastructure bill could pass the Senate this week and has already made climate history. With senators from both parties acknowledging the U.S. is not prepared for the worsening effects of climate change, the Senate has agreed to the largest ever investment in disaster resilience. Tens of billions of dollars will go to protect against sea level rise, inland flooding, wildfires, new sources of water to combat drought and relocation of a mass migration of people who can no longer live in their homes due to natural forces of nature accelerated by humans’ interaction with climate change.
This is a very large bill with lots of funding, for example NOAA’s costal protection program would see its money increase by five times and the Bureau of Reclamation which receives $20 million a year for desalination projects is expected to increase to $250 million over the next five years.
I live by a set of core values and forward thinking is one of them. This aligns well with being prepared to respond to natural disasters caused from the dangers of a warming world. Being resilient is part of my DNA, this allows for me to adapt to many conditions and terms put in front of me. Companies these days should have a disaster recovery plan set in place and the means and methods identifying the action needed for mitigation.
Across the United States, now more than ever, power companies need to have a strategic resilience plan set in place as they struggle to keep up with the demand for electricity and are faced with extreme weather events like wildfires and heat waves causing large scale blackouts to their power grids. This used to be a rare occurrence but has been the norm for the past 2 years in California, Oregon and throughout the West and the problem is only expected to get worse in the coming years.
Being forward thinking and implementing the necessary adaption and mitigation strategies during these changing times can be very expensive. This infrastructure bill is vital to the U.S. in many ways and now is the time to fund America’s infrastructure to combat and prepare for our ever changing future before it’s to late!