More Fear Porn - Climate Change Can Cause Bridges to ‘Fall Apart Like Tinkertoys’

[JBG]

Yesterday's New York Times has a typical, breath article about "climate change." The article, Climate Change Can Cause Bridges to ‘Fall Apart LikeTinkertoys,’ Experts Say (link, not paywalled) states in part:

On a 95-degree day this summer, New York City’s Third Avenue Bridge, connecting the Bronx and Manhattan, got stuck in the open position for hours. As heat and flooding scorched and scoured the Midwest, a steel railroad bridge connecting Iowa with South Dakota collapsed under surging waters. In Lewiston, Maine, a bridge closed after the pavement buckled from fluctuating temperatures.

The article continued:

The result is a quiet but growing threat to the safe movement of people and goods around the country, and another example of how climate change is reshaping daily life in ways Americans may not realize.
“We have a bridge crisis that is specifically tied to extreme weather events,” said Paul Chinowsky, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder who researches the effects of climate change on infrastructure. “These are not things that would happen under normal climate circumstances. These are not things that we’ve ever seen at this rate.”
Bridges designed and built decades ago with materials not intended to withstand sharp temperature swings are now rapidly swelling and contracting, leaving them weakened.
“It’s getting so hot that the pieces that hold the concrete and steel, those bridges can literally fall apart like Tinkertoys,” Dr. Chinowsky said.
As temperatures reached the hottest in recorded history this year, much of the nation’s infrastructure, from highways to runways, has suffered. But bridges face particular risks.

This is the definition of dishonest reporting. For the record, this past summer has not been particularly hot, and 95° was hit only once this summer. In 1936 NYC got to 106°. We have been as hot as 104° in July 2011, and have hit 100° numerous times during the 1930's, and in 1944, 1948, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957 (the year I was born), 1966, 1977, 1980, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2011, and 2012. I may have missed some years. The May 30, 1969 NY Times had the following article (link, may be paywalled):

But all perspired as the temperature rose to 97 at 3:40 P.M., combining with the heavy holiday traffic to cause some massive jams. **** Stalled, overheated cars knotted traffic in much of midtown Manhattan and on roads and bridges and in tunnels. The intense heat buckled portions of Long Island expressways, causing massive delays. Long Island-bound traffic was still tied up at midnight.The previous record for a May 29 was in 1931, when the mercurv hit 93 degrees

I am quite sure that prior to the Industrial Revolution there were heat waves strong enough to buckle pavement and bridges. This is not new; it is an attempt to spread panic and alarm.

 

[Woodznutz]

What we're seeing is weather, not climate. However, if these weather changes continue for several decades or more then we can talk about climate.