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--></style><title>Roads and more new roads: Maintenance costs and
climate co</title></head><body>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande">1st 4 paragraphs: "There's an odd
new trend in American infrastructure, and it may make you think you've
found a wormhole back to the 1950s: All over the country, roads
are getting de-paved.</font><font face="Arial"><br>
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"Wired's Aarian Marshall
reports <<<u
>https://www.wired.com/2016/07/cash-strapped-town</u
>s-un-paving-roads-cant-afford-fix/>>that transportation
agencies in 27 states have ripped up roads they can't afford to
maintain. Even with congressional spending on infrastructure going up,
it doesn't match the rising cost of concrete, asphalt, and
cement.</font><font face="Arial"><br>
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"Municipalities still can't afford to pay for road upkeep,
so instead they de-pave.</font><font face="Arial"><br>
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"This may have consequences on your struts, but unpaved roads
can have a few net benefits if done right. Paving materials
not only absorb heat and make the area around
roads hotter, they also contribute to surface runoff
and can cause erosion, water pollution, and flooding. Plus,
the cement industry is a huge producer of carbon dioxide
- responsible for about 5 percent of all global
emissions. So while de-paving might not be the sexiest
solution to our infrastructure problem - and only goes to show how
little we're spending - it really isn't the worst that
could happen.</font><font face="Arial">"</font><br>
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<div><font
face="Arial"><u
>http://grist.org/living/the-hot-new-trend-in-american-infrastructure</u
>-unpaved-roads/</font><br>
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"We present responses of a mixed woody-herbaceous ecosystem type to
an extreme event: regional-scale pinon pine mortality following an
extended drought, and the subsequent herbaceous green-up following the
first wet period after the drought."<br>
<br>
Paul M. Rich, David D. Breshears and Amanda B. White. PHENOLOGY OF
MIXED WOODY-HERBACEOUS ECOSYSTEMS FOLLOWING EXTREME EVENTS: NET AND
DIFFERENTIAL RESPONSES.<i> Ecology,</i> 89(2), 2008, pp. 342-352 Ó
2008 by the Ecological Society of America</font><br>
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