One of global warming¡¯s more colorful dangers is the possibility that melting permafrost will revive prehistoric diseases and trigger horrific pandemics. But the more immediate candidates for a disastrous, climate-fueled comeback are newer and man-made.
A hotter and more chaotic atmosphere is making it harder to build nuclear weapons and store waste safely in an unhappy union of two of humanity¡¯s biggest headaches. There¡¯s little evidence we¡¯re prepared for what could come next.
We got a stark reminder recently when one of the wildfires scorching the Texas Panhandle came perilously close to the Pantex nuclear-weapons facility just outside of Amarillo. The plant shut down briefly and workers scrambled to build a wildfire barrier ¡ª raising the question of why a nuclear-weapons facility in the parched Texas Panhandle didn¡¯t already have a wildfire barrier.
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