[MCN] Harvard Business Review : Infrastructure spending : Be careful what you wish for

[Lance Olsen]

Harvard Business Review December 2020
Are we on the verge of another financial crisis?

Question : Infrastructure spending continues to have bipartisan support. Could the Biden administration encourage infrastructure to improve resilience to climate change? I’m thinking seawalls and flood gates?  

Answer : “That’s a good idea. It’s a potentially bipartisan initiative. But first the country needs to agree politically about the goal. What is the objective of the infrastructure investment? Is it to improve the quality of life for a lot of Americans? Is it to increase economic competitiveness in certain parts of the country? To protect a subset of homeowners from fire and flood? Or is it just to spread money around congressional districts?

“To me we should think “people first,” not “spending first.” A key project-selection criterion would be how to accomplish the most benefit for the most people, using the least resources (a concept attributed to Buckminster Fuller <https://www.bfi.org/>). “

https://hbr.org/2020/12/are-we-on-the-verge-of-another-financial-crisis <https://hbr.org/2020/12/are-we-on-the-verge-of-another-financial-crisis>

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Massive African infrastructure projects often hurt, rather than help people <https://theconversation.com/massive-african-infrastructure-projects-often-hurt-rather-than-help-local-people-132699>
...theconversation.com › massive-african-infrastructure-pr... <https://theconversation.com/massive-african-infrastructure-projects-often-hurt-rather-than-help-local-people-132699>
Mar 16, 2020 — Big infrastructure projects are always controversial. Yet in parts of the world associated with severely deficient infrastructure, the positive value …

https://theconversation.com/massive-african-infrastructure-projects-often-hurt-rather-than-help-local-people-132699 <https://theconversation.com/massive-african-infrastructure-projects-often-hurt-rather-than-help-local-people-132699>

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Environmental Research Letters Published 2 July 2020 
Between adaptive capacity and action: new insights into climate change adaptation at the household scale
Colette Mortreux, Saffron O'Neill and Jon Barnett

OPEN ACCESS pdf: 
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab7834/pdf <https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab7834/pdf>

Abstract
Research on social vulnerability and adaptation to climate change assumes that increasing amounts of adaptive capacity increase the likelihood of actions to adapt to climate change. We test this assumption as it applies at the scale of households, through a study of the relationship between adaptive capacity and household actions to adapt to wildfire risk in Mount Dandenong, Australia. Here we show a weak relationship exists between adaptive capacity and adaptation, such that high adaptive capacity does not clearly result in a correspondingly high level of adaptation. Three factors appear to mediate the relationship between household adaptive capacity and adaptation: their attitude to risk, their experience of risk, and their expectations of authorities. The findings suggest that to understand the adaptation practices of households, greater attention needs to be paid to socio-psychological factors that trigger people to apply their available capacities.

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“...many scientists say deep emissions cuts are necessary … to prevent … 
dangerous consequences of global warming. 

"Getting from here to there would require a massive economic shift.”

Rachel Pannett and Jeffrey Ball. “Australia Approves Energy Bill.”  
The Wall Street Journal  p.A7, August 21, 2009

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