Adverse Effects Of Climate Change

The effects of climate change are worse than people believe. When the average American thinks about climate change they solely think about carbon dioxide and various greenhouse gases releasing into the atmosphere or ice caps melting, however climate change dramatically impacts the infrastructure. Rising sea levels, heavy downpours, and extreme heat, all caused by climate change, deteriorate highways, bridges, buildings, water plants, power plants, and most importantly dams. These dilapidations are predicted to increase as climate change continues to worsen; fixing the damage will cost an enormous amount of money. Severe hurricanes and tropical storms will result in destruction that most of today’s infrastructure cannot handle since many infrastructure systems are outdated. Adverse effects of impaired dams include: contamination, medical deficits, and major damages to cities. In order to construct superior systems more resilient to climate change and reduce contaminations and medical deficits, the U.S. needs to put close to sixty billion dollars into the infrastructure budget within the next 10 years.
To start, floods, caused by excess precipitation, is causing thousands of deaths (La Ganga 2014). As the temperature continues to ascend, precipitation does as well. The …show more content…
The costly damages such as falling buildings, water contamination, and medical deficits caused during a hurricane can be prevented by funding for better dams. Lori Spragens (“Association of State Dam Safety Officials” 2015) stated that it would cost $53.69 billion to upgrade all the dams that need upgraded. Although upgrading the dams will not prevent all floods from happening, it will immensely help areas that are highly affected by hurricanes and lower the amount of damages that