We humans now face an era of climate that is uncharted for the size and complexity of the human community.

Our roads, rails, ports, buildings, electric grid, water systems and food systems are not designed for this new climate.

Our maladapted infrastructure problem is becoming even more obvious now as a combination of climate change and the warm phase of the periodic fluctuation of warm and cool waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation is bringing record worldwide temperatures.

Public health infrastructure and practices will also have to change as tropical diseases creep further from the equator and toward the poles.

Those who have called for a focus on adaptation to climate change-either because they don’t believe climate change is human-caused or because they now see the futility of getting humans to address the causes of climate change-will have their hands full in the decades ahead. They will be working in a new environment in which the Earth breaks records not just for temperature but for other measures such as rainfall and drought in various locations depending on how climate change is affecting those locations.