We built our world for a climate that no longer exists
"Once you start to look, danger signs of Old World infrastructure are everywhere.
Reservoir dams around the world are stressed by extreme rainfall events. Airport tarmacs soften in the heat, causing flights cancellations. Cities are becoming human frying pans.
The Summer Olympics become dangerous games in 100-degree heat. The insurance business [is unable to] deal with permanent flooding from sea level rise."
" Our dependence on AC, in fact, masks the true scope and scale of the challenges we face.
In the end, addressing the climate crisis is not about building better technology. It’s much bigger than that. We need to rebuild our world. Fast-rising temperatures and more extreme weather are forcing us to rethink everything about how we live – where we get our energy, how we grow our food, how we build our cities, and, mostly importantly, who we vote for. "
The World’s Power Grids Are Failing as the Planet Warms
"#ClimateChange affects power distribution in lots of ways. Extreme heat increases demand for cooling, while reducing the efficiency of solar panels, crimping supply. High temperatures can cause lines to sag and transformers to overheat, leading to equipment failing and increasing risks of fires."
"For more than 75 years, high-hazard structures in the United States, including dams and nuclear power plants, have been engineered to withstand floods resulting from the most unlikely but possible precipitation, termed Probable Maximum Precipitation or PMP. "
It's time to update the PMP estimates to account for climate change.
As climate change continues to supercharge storms that threaten existing infrastructure, there’s an urgent need to modernize estimates of probable maximum precipitation and improve the science behind them.
"Policymakers can often be overly focused on whether their part of the world is becoming wetter or drier overall. But as this new research shows, it’s variability they should be worried about.
Our findings have major implications for [cities'] preparedness for #FlashFlooding. More intense downpours are likely to overwhelm stormwater systems designed for past conditions."
Updates of flood maps are urgently needed, but also estimates of the Probable Maximum Precipitation as that informs the design of stormwater management systems.
"Researchers led by Zhang Wenxia at the China Academy of Sciences studied historical meteorological data and found about 75% of the world's land area had seen a rise in "precipitation variability" or wider swings between wet and dry weather."
#DisasterPreparation in a changed climate
"Emergency managers may not order evacuations because hurricanes are rapidly intensifying after the evacuation window has closed.
More often now, coastal residents will find themselves sheltering at home.
That means having enough food and water for an extended period in the event of power outages. It may also mean having a backup generator as well as a solar charger for your phone if you can afford it, Montano added. "
https://edition.cnn.com/weather/hurricanes-global-warming-preparation-climate/index.html
"While climate change does not cause hurricanes, we are certain it makes them more destructive. Humans have increased sea level, leading to more destructive storm surge, and a warmer atmosphere produces more rain.
[These effects] push our physical environment beyond thresholds that infrastructure was designed to handle."
https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/you-will-not-escape-the-climate-crisis
"Residents who have watched their life savings get washed away multiple times are left with few choices — leave the communities where their families have lived for generations, pay tens of thousands of dollars to rebuild their houses on stilts as building codes require, or move into a recreational vehicle they can drive out of harm’s way.
That’s if they can afford any of those things."
Brooke Hiers just a month ago left the state-issued emergency trailer where her family had lived after Hurricane Idalia slammed into her home on Florida's Gulf Coast in August of 2023. Then Hurricane Helene crashed ashore. For the third time in 13 months, a 50-mile sliver of the state’s vast coastline took a direct hit from a hurricane. Hurricane Debby also had struck in August 2024. The hits in the windswept stretch of Florida’s Big Bend are forcing residents to reckon with the costs of living in an area under siege by storms that researchers say are becoming stronger because of climate change.
"The government enjoys broad legal authority to move people out of their homes to promote the public interest, so long as it provides property owners with what the U.S. Constitution calls “just compensation.”
This seemingly universal doctrine is unfair in a fundamental sense, however, since it makes it far easier for a government to buy out and relocate a poor neighborhood than a wealthy one."
https://grist.org/migration/climate-change-home-buyouts-displacement-managed-retreat/
Another reality:
Who Will Care for Americans Left Behind by #ClimateMigration?
"As people move away from flooding and heat, new research suggests that those who remain will be older, poorer and more vulnerable."
https://www.propublica.org/article/climate-change-migration-hurricane-helene
"From hurricanes to deadly heatwaves, crippling droughts to crop failures – the consequences of #ClimateChange are potentially catastrophic.
Yet many governments do not routinely consider extreme climate scenarios in their security plans, and instead continue to assume that climate risks will gradually evolve over the long term.
This approach is proving to be grossly insufficient."
One post upthread says that climate change has moved the Probable Maximum Precipitation.
Looks like the probably maximum heat also needs to be revisited.
"We should brace for worse-than-expected #heatwaves in the years ahead, as climate models are underestimating the potency of these events in some areas, including the UK and northern France, southern Australia and northern Canada."
The non-linear interactions between climate change, local soil conditions, the effects of large cities, local hydrological cycle, etc. would not be included in planetary-scale climate models.
Looks like we're in the "finding out" stage.
"Across #Canada, about 10,000 kilometres of winter roads are constructed each year, many crossing ice-covered lakes. For northern communities, these #IceRoads are essential for economic stability, health and security.
In some regions, #ClimateChange has already disrupted transportation."
https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-making-canadas-ice-roads-hard-to-navigate-242569
"The biggest lesson that we need to learn is that we are just plain not prepared for the climate that we have created. Our world is not built for the #climate that we live in, and the biggest change is going to require acknowledging that fact.
I’m scared that we’re going to rebuild LA more or less the same way, without using this as an opportunity to rethink how LA is built and reinvest in public infrastructure, [and] a retreat from building in the most risky areas. "
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/18/climate/jeff-goodell-rebuilding-la-fires/index.html
Despite the finger-pointing about who is to blame for the spread of the LA fires, veteran climate writer Jeff Goodell believes no level of preparation could have fundamentally changed the trajectory of this disaster. But there is a vital lesson to be learned.
How huge parts of the U.S. could become uninhabitable within decades — even so-called ‘climate havens’
"From poisoned water supplies to infrastructure issues to polar vortices, the entire U.S. is being threatened by #ClimateChange, and why you can’t just move to Vermont to escape it
“The costs of failure are way more than the cost of doing something about it,” Chester adds. “You can’t turn away from the LA wildfires or NYC flooding. The costs are astronomical.”"
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/usa-cities-unlivable-climate-change-b2687239.html
It’s not just Florida and California — from poisoned water supplies to infrastructure issues to polar vortices, Holly Baxter speaks to experts about why the entire U.S. is being threatened by climate change, and why you can’t just move to Vermont to escape it
Examples of how we built our cities for a climate that no longer exists
Why Los Angeles Burned
"We’re in trouble not because we’re helpless, or because we have broken the planet beyond repair. We’re in trouble because we live in a world that was built for a climate that no longer exists, and the rebuilding of our world to adapt to this new, hotter, more dangerous climate is a task that we have hardly begun to undertake."
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/climate-change-la-fires-cause-1235263674/
#ClimateChange: “#Greece Was Built for a Climate That No Longer Exists,” Warns University of Athens Professor
"Greece has experienced such wildfires over the past three years, he noted. Paradoxically, extended droughts are often followed by extreme weather events causing floods and significant damage to urban and rural areas. These phenomena are intensified by rising sea surface temperatures, increasing by 0.5 degrees Celsius per decade."
https://greekcitytimes.com/2025/04/04/climate-change-greece/
Greece is facing a climate crisis that demands urgent action, warns Kostas Kartalis, Professor at the University of Athens. 'We’ve built our country for a climate that no longer exists,' he told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency. With heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires intensifying, Kartalis calls for a major overhaul of productive sectors and infrastructure to withstand these changes, ahead of his participation in the 10th Delphi Economic Forum, set for April 9-12, 2025.
The Case for Paying Americans to Move Out of Floodplains
"A home in Mississippi, for example, flooded 34 times in 32 years, resulting in insurance claims totaling nearly 10 times the home’s value. This is not sustainable — there are places we simply shouldn’t be living.
With federal disaster aid uncertain, states and localities should build voluntary buyout programs to relocate residents from floodplains."
https://www.governing.com/resilience/the-case-for-paying-americans-to-move-out-of-floodplains
We built a world for a climate that no longer exists, and the strains are showing.
"Buckled roads. Broken bridges. Delayed trains. Strained power grids that led to dangerous outages. Cases of heat illness and canceled sporting events.
As previous disasters have laid bare the US’ vulnerabilities to extreme weather, this week is revealing strains in the country’s infrastructure and highlighting the public health risks when faced with such record-breaking heat. "
https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/25/weather/heat-wave-infrastructure-health-global-warming-climate
As previous disasters have laid bare the US’ vulnerabilities to other types of extreme weather, this week is revealing strains in infrastructure and highlighting public health risks when faced with record-breaking heat.
"Extreme heat is becoming a dangerous new normal that brings with it a number of health risks. From severe burns to accelerated aging, the effects of long periods of high temperatures on the human body are getting more attention in this time of rising climate change."
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-long-term-health-risks-as-extreme-heat-becomes-a-new-normal
Extreme heat is becoming a dangerous new normal that brings with it a number of health risks. From severe burns to accelerated aging, the effects of long periods of high temperatures on the human body are getting more attention in this time of rising climate change. Stephanie Sy reports from Phoenix, the epicenter of extreme heat in the United States, for our series, Tipping Point.
" "AC is throwing a lot of energy at a problem that needs to be solved through building design first," Carraway said.
Instead, Carraway has opted to install insulation and a white roof, which absorbs less heat. He said solar panels on the roof and [a cypress tree] also help keep his home cool on the occasional hot days.
Many Americans simply can't afford AC due to the rising costs of summer cooling. That could put them at higher risk of heat illness and death."
"More than 2in of rain fell in Central Park in the 7pm hour on Monday evening, part of a regional downpour that filled the city’s highways and subway tunnels and prompted several water rescues.
A rainstorm exceeding the subway design limit had never been recorded before 1991 but has happened six times since then, including Monday’s rains."
That subway was built for a climate that no longer exists.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/16/new-york-floods-storm-climate-change
City plans are made for a climate that no longer exists. Re-designing them will not be without pain. Not re-designing will bring a lot more pain.
"Floodplains belong to the rivers. For too long, we have tried to make them part of the property of humans and a place for human habitation. That simply cannot continue—not without more tragedies like those we have just witnessed on the Guadalupe and in Houston."
https://www.texasobserver.org/flooding-houston-hill-country-planning/
"What was supposed to be a model for how the government could get people out of harm’s way along the country’s steadily eroding coastlines has become a cautionary tale for the estimated 2.5 million Americans who could be forced to relocate away from the coast over the next 25 years.
[Nelson and Birch] wrote about the pitfalls of relocation initiatives in [Louisiana]. The best approach, they say, is to deeply involve the people who need to move away from the coast."
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/28092025/louisiana-isle-de-jean-charles-climate-relocation/
"Much of the world’s building stock is entering its middle age under environmental conditions it was never designed to face."
https://insideecology.com/2026/02/09/city-skylines-need-an-upgrade-in-the-face-of-climate-stress/
Yes.
The Netherlands is the only place I personally know of that acknowledges that, they now have a "Room For The Rivers" policy. I hope there are many others like it, if not now, then as soon as possible.
Yes, I for one am looking forward to a resurgence of place-specific architecture. It's kind of insane that the same sticks-and-drywall construction is used all over a place as diverse as the United States. Or that steel and glass buildings are built in tropical countries.
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