Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sounded the alarm about climate change, warning that it is already affecting transportation.
“The reality is that the effects of climate change are already upon us in terms of transportation,” Buttigieg said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“We’ve seen this in the form of everything from heat waves that shouldn’t even be statistically possible, threatening to melt cables on transit systems in the Pacific Northwest, to increasingly extreme hurricane seasons and indications that turbulence is increasing. by about 15 percent. That means evaluating anything and everything we can do about it,” she added.
Buttigieg’s comments came days after a passenger on a Singapore Airlines flight died and dozens of others were injured after the plane experienced severe turbulence last week. He explained that although incidents like this are “rare,” the US still needs to prepare to adapt to climate change.
“To be clear, something this extreme is very rare, but turbulence can happen, and sometimes it can happen unexpectedly. Our climate is evolving. Our policies, our technology and our infrastructure must also evolve accordingly,” she said.
“The goal is to ensure we are ahead of the curve, keeping aviation as safe as it is. No wonder it has become the safest way to travel in America,” Buttigieg added.
It is still unclear what may have caused the deadly turbulence on the Singapore Airlines flight. The National Transportation Safety Board said last week that it would sending a team of investigators to investigate the incident.
The Singapore Airlines flight quickly raised questions around turbulence and whether customers should expect more turbulence due to stronger winds caused by climate change.
Some studies have shown that clear-sky turbulence – which occurs when there are no visible signs of severe weather – is increasing due to climate change.
Research from the University of Reading last year found that strong air turbulence increased by 55 percent between 1979 and 2020, also stating that the increase is “consistent with the effects of climate change”.
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