Climate Change Will Ruin Your WiFi Connection (And Much More Important Things)

According to the Guardian, climate change might make our WiFi connections worse. Maybe now the kids will pay attention. (Actually, it's not the kids we have to worry about. But, perhaps, the rest of you easily distracted internet denizens.)

Wi-fi internet access and other communications are at risk from global warming unless measures are taken to protect them from rising temperatures and stormier weather, a government report warned on Monday...

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"If climate change threatens the quality of your signal, or you can't get it because of extreme fluctuations in temperature, then you will be disadvantaged, which is why we must address the question," said Spelman, "and just imagine in the height of an emergency if the communications system is down or adversely affected."

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The report actually warns of some much graver threats than WiFi disruption. It shows how all kinds of infrastructure—from rail tracks to roads to water pipes to freaking nuclear generators—are at risk. But the focus on WiFi no doubt got the Guardian some extra pageviews.

So, while I have you here, here are three much better reasons to care about climate change than your WiFi connection. (Don't worry, I'm pretty sure those crafty technologists will figure that out.) First, it's the biggest threat to public health that the world has ever known. Second, it's the biggest threat to global peace and stability, and also specifically to our national security, as the Pentagon and CIA are well aware. Finally, religious leaders and other ethicists call it one of the great moral and ethical issues of our time. The Vatican says that "humans must act decisively now to avert a coming crisis," and that "if we want justice and peace, we must protect the habitat that sustains us."

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