Sustainability by Any Other Name

It’s pretty apparent now the climate we’re operating in has changed — literally.

Politicians in Washington can argue about climate change or global warming and if it’s real or not and if so, what’s causing it. That’s all fine for them, but for the rest of us it’s pretty apparent there isn’t time for that. We need to think differently about our cities and the critical infrastructure that serves them.

We’ve seen Hurricane Harvey decimate Houston and bring its air traffic to a halt in the nation’s fourth largest metropolitan area. Then Hurricane Irma ripped through Florida, taking countless airports and airfields out of commission in the southeast, including Miami International Airport, one of the critical ports of entry into the U.S.

And throughout the year we’ve shared stories from across the nation looking at airports all over North America with new challenges facing them in part due to climate change. Even cities like Las Vegas are now taxed with high temperatures forcing leaders to rethink how and when air traffic comes in.

The nation needs to put resiliency first with our entire critical infrastructure going forward. Without needed changes, we’re going to see these economic cogs ripped asunder again and again as the world around us changes. If we don’t more tax dollars are going to fritter away on rebuilding the same thing over and over again, just waiting for it to collapse once more as another weather event comes in.

Climate change and global warming are loaded words for a lot of people on both sides of the spectrum. The topic can spark a lot of passionate opinions and energize a lot of people. However, it’s more important than ever the leaders of this industry — the ones who actually make the economy move — must keep focused with the real issues at hand while the politicians bicker.