Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
27/07/2012
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
Of highways in Texas, nuclear power plants in Illinois, concrete, steel and sophisticated engineering that support the infrastructure of the United States are at risk because of drought, heat and storms that hit the country in a single day in July, a U.S. Airways plane stuck on the tarmac - which softened with temperatures around 40 º C - and a subway train derailed after the rails were bowed with heat, creating an acute angle in a piece that should be straight. Information is the site of the New York Times.
In eastern Texas, the heat and drought had an amazing effect on soils from the highways. According to the engineer Tom Scullion, Texas A & M University, in the northeastern and midwestern abnormal heat is causing major highway sections to expand beyond that provided in their projects. "With the changes in weather patterns, we can have tragic flaws in the systems of roads," he said.
In Chicago, Illinois, a nuclear plant needed special permission to continue operating in July, because the lake where it leaves the water used for cooling reached an average of 38.8 ° C, and the license to operate allows us to reach approximately 37 º C. According to the Independent System Operator of the Midwest, another plant had to close because the place where the cooling water extracted dried.
The severe weather threat has been frequent in recent years, and people who deal with infrastructure believe that this will continue. Climate models suggest that parts of structures susceptible to climate will face situations similar to those described above, caused by changes in weather patterns, with extremely high temperatures - and also minimal.
"We have the 'storm of the century" every year, "said Bill Gausman, senior vice president of Potomac Electric Power Company, which took eight days to recover from the storm of June 29, he left without power 4.3 billion people in 10 states.
Aside from the storms, heat waves are also changing the pattern of electricity usage, increasing the hours of peak demand. This involves investment in generating plants, transmission lines, distribution to be used at full capacity for only a few hundred hours per year.
Climate program director of the Public Service Commission of San Francisco, David Behar says that violent storms and forest fires can also affect the quality and water use. The flow of ash and heavy rain, for example, can close reservoirs.
Efforts to adapt have been made throughout the country Some are even multi-billion dollar, as it seeks to increase the height of the levees in New Orleans, because of projected sea level rise and severe storms forecasting. (Source: Terra)
Source: Terra
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.