Are We Facing an Infrastructure Nightmare Too Expensive to Prevent?

Seventy-years ago, the United States started to create the world's most superior infrastructure that served to tie America together, creating a superpower. By 1961, when much of our infrastructure was practically brand new, and in working order, still realizing the importance of a solid underpinning, we allocated 12% of the federal budget for that cutting edge infrastructure.

Today, after decades of neglect, and as communities start to confront horrifying infrastructure breakdowns, we have chosen to allocate only 2% of our federal budget. The backlog of problems is now too big for any state budget to handle; resulting in each city sitting on a minefield of potential time bombs, because when infrastructure doesn't do its job, the results can wipe out entire communities, which begs the question: Why do people have to die before it becomes a national agenda?

On August 14, 2003, one line shorted that resulted in the blackout that put New York City, a large portion of six states, and Ontario, Canada in the dark, providing one of too many examples of the truth about infrastructure in America. When the electricity stops, everything stops, and we're back to the 1800s. The longer that blackout lasts, the farther back in history we go. As it stands now, the industry needs to spend $5 Trillion by 2030 to repair and expand the power grid.

Speed is everything in the global economy, yet, compared to the rest of the world, America is stuck in the slow lane, because rather than investing in our future - roads, bridges, highways, transit systems, rail systems, airports, dams, sewage system, power grid, levees, pipes - and rebuilding our assets, we chose to spend the money frivolously, investing in nothing. Meanwhile, our aging infrastructure, so intrinsic to our society, is rotting, crumbling, eroding, and obsolete. Double, triple, quadruple the demand on these deteriorating fundamental facilities and systems and you have a formula for disaster.

Take the Delaware Aqueduct (85 miles long), five feet in diameter, between 300-1,500 feet in the ground, and 70 years old, it is the longest continuous tunnel in the world. The water tunnel's chiefly responsible for quenching New York City's thirst, which requires two billion gallons of water a day. Constructed between 1937 and 1945, when high-grade materials were scarce; it's no surprise that today it is leaking massively. There are communities sitting on top of that pipe. Literally they're flooding from underneath and the result is that they're sinking into the ground. However, the Aqueduct hasn't been shut down for inspection since 1957, because engineers fear it could collapse without the pressure of water surging through the system. Planning is underway for an eventual shutdown, but it's going to cost billions of dollars, and that's only if we're lucky enough to get to it before it totally collapses. At that point, the cost will be incomprehensible.

Then there are America's roads and highways. They are headed for a crashing collapse because federal, state and local governments haven't spent the hundreds of billions of dollars needed for maintenance and repair. Built to last 50-years, two-thirds of our busiest roads are now 50-years or older and 33% of our major highways are in poor or mediocre condition.

We can't afford to ignore the most crucial issue - our nation's crumbling infrastructure - absolutely necessary to remain economically competitive any more. Already, it has deteriorated so badly that it is threatening our nation’s economic viability, possibly to the point of plunging the status of America to that of a third world country. Rather than remain a third world country waiting to happen, we must make sure we do not pass up this critical opportunity, to not only prevent total disaster, but also create new jobs on a vast scale at the same time.

Links:

Under-taxed Americans are Too Broke to Finance Sustainability Infrastructure

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Stop the Spread of Global Petroaddiction With Pedals for Progress.

As economies like India and China start to demand more oil, the current global oil supply and the infrastructure will not be able to handle the ever increasing demand. Unfortunately, our petroaddictive behavior will definitely speak louder than words. Who are we to tell them they can't live like us?

Fortunately, there is Pedals for Progress who not only donates used bicycles to third world countries, they also help "developing world economies by promoting self-sustaining bicycle repair businesses." Convincing other countries to pedal will not be an easy chore, but someone must do it in order to save our planet.

Aside from saving the earth, pedaling has so many advantages over motoring such as the exercise it provides, the cost factor, the space factor, and the easy care and maintenance. Unlike horses or camels, bicycles do not require any fuel at all except the combustible substance of human calories.

Of course, calories is something most Americans have in spades. This is not the case for billions of people across the globe, especially now as the ripple effect of our fiscal crisis can be felt across this terraqueous ball we all occupy. Not to mention the effects of global warming, in part caused by our compulsive physiological and psychological need for more where oil ranks as the number one requisite.

Climate Change Summary Says Asia And Africa Will See Danger, Death, And Extinction Of Species Unless Countries Adapt:

Global warming's effects now still may be more pesky than catastrophic. But a new scientific report says that when the Earth gets a few degrees hotter, inconvenience will give way to danger, death and extinction of species.

The world faces increased hunger and water shortages in the poorest countries, massive floods and avalanches in Asia, and species extinction unless nations adapt to climate change and halt its progress, according to a report approved Friday by an international conference on global warming.

The poorest parts of the world, especially Africa and Asia, will be hit hardest, says the summary from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, issued Friday after a long, contentious editing session.

In a New York Times article, Scientists Detail Climate Changes, Poles to Tropics, James Kanter and Andrew C. Revkin report on how climate change is already changing the planet and detail how it will get worse.

"In its most detailed portrait of the effects of climate change driven by human activities, the panel predicted widening droughts in southern Europe and the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, the American Southwest and Mexico, and flooding that could imperil low-lying islands and the crowded river deltas of southern Asia. It stressed that many of the regions facing the greatest risks were among the world’s poorest."

Nevertheless, the people who do not have enough calories to burn are of little concern. If they can't afford to feed themselves, they certainly can't afford to motor themselves. Rather, we need to concern ourselves with the people who are past the point of starvation and who are starting to climb out of the depths of deprivation ...these are the people we must meddle in the affairs, to persuade them to pedal and spin their wares....and therein lies the reason I remain anonymous.

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American Public Transit Needs Overhaul to Meet 21st Century Challenges

As the 21st century presents us with many new challenges, our current public transit system does not measure up. America has more cars per capita than any other country in the world, has doubled the number of miles driven compared to the last quarter-century, and "our" insistence on driving large automobiles only contributes to the problems we need to address.

Global warming, public security, rising fuel cost, an over abundance of traffic, makes it critical we revamp our public transportation system. By reducing our dependence on the automobile we can reverse the current trend of two out of every three barrels of oil in the United States fueling our transportation system. For every dollar we invest in public transit, America saves nearly two dollars in cost from relying on the old method of transportation, not to mention the benefits to our global environment.

U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), who takes on powerful interests on behalf of the American public, reported why rail, rapid buses and other forms of public transit must play a more prominent role in America’s future transportation system.

Existing public transportation already plays a key role in addressing key problems faced by America:

-In 2006, transit saved an estimated 3.4 billion gallons of gasoline in the United States—enough to fuel 5.8 million cars for a year. In monetary terms, transit saved more than $9 billion that would otherwise have been spent on gasoline.

-In 2005, transit prevented 540.8 million hours of traffic delay, according to the Texas Transportation Institute, equivalent to more than 61,700 people sitting in traffic for an entire year. The monetary value of those savings was $10.2 billion.

-Transit reduced global warming emissions by nearly 26 million metric tons in 2006. In New York state alone, transit avoided 11.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution—more than was produced by the entire economies of Rhode Island, Vermont or the District of Columbia.

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