The historic infrastructure bill, known as the IIJA, has been talked up from many perspectives. The Bill promises a huge sum of money to update the infrastructure across America, from roads, bridges and railways to schools and hospitals. . The American Society of Civil Engineers assess the state of infrastructure across the country every 4 years. It’s a stringent process, looking at 17 major infrastructure categories, with each awarded a school-style letter grade: A – F. And for nearly 20 years, this report card would have been accidentally lost on the way home from school – with no better than a D grade being awarded until 2021 – when the nation scored a C-. Not much of an improvement, but let’s stay positive. So finally, with the IIJA being passed, there’ll be a healthy injection of money to actually make an impact in the 17 individual categories. And remember there is constant and integral connections between these categories – in the same way that our Planetary Systems and Boundaries, that is to say all life on and around Earth, are intrinsically connected. And thankfully, climate change mitigation, resilience and adaptation do seem to take the lead in these IIJA measures. In this video we’ll look at some of those promised funds, as well as some of the more interesting and innovative environmental and climate protections. Did you know that there are funds allocated to install pollinator habitats, roadside? And ensure safe wildlife crossings? As well as increase battery and storage manufacture in the US and EV charging access? Now, of course, this Bill isn’t perfect. There’s some things missing which really should be there…but as we always say, perfect is the enemy of good, and we’ll take this IIJA as a fantastic step in the right direction! With this video you can start to feel more positive about the future!
You can watch this latest video here.
