Climate change forcing changes to transportation industry, Pete Buttigieg says
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, discussing the turbulence on a Singapore Airlines flight that killed a passenger last week, said that climate change is affecting the transportation industry and that the United States must learn to adapt for safe transportation.
“The reality is, the effects of climate change are already upon us in terms of our transportation,” Buttigieg said.
“We've seen that in the form of everything from heat waves that shouldn't statistically even be possible threatening to melt the cables of transit systems in the Pacific Northwest, to, as you mentioned, hurricane seasons becoming more and more extreme and indications that turbulence is up by about 15 percent. That means assessing anything and everything that we can do about it.”
During a prerecorded interview that aired on CBS’ "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Buttigieg told host Margaret Brennan that as climate change continues to create more extreme weather, it will become more important to “continually refresh” in order to keep transportation safe.
Buttigieg’s comments come after one passenger died and dozens more injured on a Singapore Airlines flight last week due to extreme turbulence — something Buttigieg called “very rare.” But he added that turbulence is “more frequent and more severe than before.”
“This is something that has to continually evolve. Our climate is evolving. Our policies and our technology and our infrastructure have to evolve accordingly, too,” Buttigieg said. “This is all about making sure that we stay ahead of the curve, keeping aviation as safe as it is.”
