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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Down To Earth

How climate change could ruin the internet


Perfect. Climate change could keep you from reading Down To Earth. According to a new report from the United Kingdom, climate change could threaten WiFi internet access. Higher temperatures can reduce the signal range, increased rainfall can affect reliability, and more severe storms could lead to more outages. 

Other parts of infrastructure are at risk too- railway lines and roads. But can you live without all that as long as the internet is working, right? Or at least not running slowly? UGH! (Just as long as I can still watch this, we're cool climate change. If not, it's war.)

From The Guardian: The government acknowledges that the impact of climate change on telecommunications is not well understood, but the report raises a series of potential risks. In addition to the impact on range and reliability, warmer temperatures and more intense storms may cause communications infrastructure to be flooded, or damaged by an increase in trees falling onto overhead lines. There is even the suggestion that changes in the plants that grow in the UK could affect how radio waves travel.

"What this report reminds us is that sudden shifts in global climate will affect our world and our daily lives in chaotic and unusual ways," said Ruth Davis, policy advisor to Greenpeace in the article. "The UK will not be immune, and the government's discovery that one of the most important sectors for the UK's economic recovery – electronic communications – could be affected by climate change, shows just how vital it is for our prosperity that we curb emissions now."

Share this on Facebook while there's still time! I just hope that if the internet dies from climate change, the LOL-cats make it out alive. 

 



Down To Earth

The DTE blog is committed to reporting and sharing environmental news and sustainability information from across the Inland Northwest.