Response to NYT article "New York Is Lagging as Seas and Risks Rise, Critics Warn"

Hello, my name is Jeremy and in this blog I will be summarizing some points of a New York Times article called “New York Is Lagging as Seas and Risks Rise, Critics Warn”, because I feel the more aware we are about potential risks and dangers, the better suited we are to eliminate or correct them.  In this article it discusses many risks and dangers New York faces due to climate change and how it’s affecting rising sea levels and just how unprepared we are to face them.  The first glimpse of how unprepared we were in 2011 when Hurricane Irene was suppose to make landfall in New York.  The city ordered evacuation of about 370,000 residents to safe zones and shut down all public transportation virtually paralyzing the city. A lot of talk since then has been floating around in terms of how do we stop this from becoming worst in the future.  Already New York has taken some steps in mitigating the damage that potential storms pose in the future such as; expanding wetlands, installing green roofs that can absorb water, and planting tree pits that can absorb a lot of water.  Many say this is not enough and that we need to invest in things like sea gates in order to prevent flooding in certain areas, while others argue establishing those sea gates will interrupt the natural ecosystem that we have and it would cost nearly $10 billion to build.

However, the only issue at hand isn’t just the budget.  As I was reading the article one of the Reader Picks comments was from Jim Gordon from Boston, MA.  In his comment he stated that not only should we invest in preventative measures to avoid and prepare for these monster storms, but also just as importantly we should be investing to find other sources of energy instead of the carbon based ones that we already use that put us in this position to begin with.  Honestly I couldn’t agree more with him.  In order to reverse the damage we already caused we need to eliminate any further damage to the earth and it’s climate by being more aware of how we produce products and just in general the consequences of our daily activities that may have an unfortunate effect on us in the future.  We also need to find new ways to prepare for the worst as a city.  Even though we lucked out with Hurricane Irene, Hurricane Sandy showed us just how unprepared we are for things to come.  Hopefully we will be able to both prepare better for future storms that we may face and also take steps in the right direction to fix the damage we’ve caused to the environment thus far.