Jobs That Will Be Most Affected by Global Warming
By:
Working outside sounds appealing to people who sit in an office all day, but millions of Americans are subjected to the terms and conditions of Mother Nature for their employment.
RELATED: 6 Ways Climate Change Will Drastically Change Your Everyday Life
These three occupations could be heavily impacted by changing climate conditions as human-fueled global warming continues to impact everything from air quality to rising sea levels.
1. Pilots
Nobody likes a delayed flight, including your pilot. The U.S. Department of Transportation reported in 2015 that weather was the cause of national aviation system delays about 53 percent of the time.
Business Insider reports that studies like this one published in Nature Climate Change suggest that the relationship between climate change and altered global wind speeds could have costly expenses, such as more money spent on fuel, or an increase in carbon-dioxide emissions released by planes.
Over time, this could drastically affect a pilot’s job, which includes interpreting weather information and understanding meteorological threats.
RELATED: Is Extreme Weather The Deadly New Normal?
2. Construction workers
With climate change comes a spike in storms and extreme temperatures, fueling hotter summers and colder winters. Weather and construction can be mortal enemies or best friends, but they’re dependent on one another. Poor weather causes delays in construction which can increase overall cost. Hot temperatures make concrete more difficult to cure. According to the UK Institution of Civil Engineers, the construction industry has complex links to national economies, including social and economic progress.
Unfortunately, it’s also worth noting that construction doesn’t do any favors for contributing to climate change, and the New York Times reports that climate change and construction is already being tackled by legislators and President Barack Obama. According to The Times, Obama signed an executive order earlier this year requiring all federally funded construction projects to consider effects of global warming like increased precipitation and rising sea levels.
3. Mail carriers
According to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) website, the USPS has reported their green house gas emissions since 2007. But planning for climate change doesn’t stop there. In 2014, the federal mail service actually published a climate change adaptation plan that accounts for the changing weather patterns, and what those patterns could mean for mail delivery.
The report, which you can read here, details how the postal service plans on delivering mail amidst “excessively high temperatures, more heavy downpours, an increase in wildfires, more severe droughts, permafrost thawing, ocean acidification, and sea-level rise.”
Whether or not you plan to work a job in a field that’s related to weather, it’s obvious that no one will be able to escape the impact global warming will have on all of our lives. If Americans expect timely mail, paved roads and affordable flights, action needs to be taken to try and build a more sustainable future for the world as a whole.
