New York Times Article

     In this blog I am responding to an assignment in my ENG 101 composition class on climate change. The assignment asked me to read an article from the New York Times "New York Is Lagging as Seas and Risks Rise, Critics Warn." That was published on September 10, 2012 by Mireya Navarro. In this blog I will discuss how New York is going to be affected by the climate change and what there doing to prevent it.

     The article talks about how big of an impact the climate change will have on New York especially in Lower Manhattan, South Bronx and Sunset Park in Brooklyn. City officials are handling this situation at their own pace, and mostly focusing on Lower Manhattan instead of the whole entire city. In the article Eddie Bautista executive director of NYC Environmental Justice Alliance says "A lot of attention is devoted to Lower Manhattan, but you forget that you have real industries on the waterfront" elsewhere in the city. In the South Bronx and Sunset Park in Brooklyn their are chemical-manufacturing plants, oil-storage sites and garbage-transfer stations. If the right steps aren't taken those areas can be filled with toxic water one day. Eddie Bautista also talks about how "We're behind in consciousness-building and disaster planning." New York is taking certain per-cautions to what will happen in the future but still have plans for waterfront development instead of retreating from the shoreline. The water by the city has been rising an inch a decade over the last century. But scientist believe that sea levels could rise two feet higher than today due to environmental factors.Frequent flooding is expected to become the new "normal."

     Douglas Hill an engineer with the Storm Surge Research Group at Sony Brook University believes that "They lack a sense of urgency about this," and instead of "planning to be flooded," the city, state, and federal agencies should be investing in sea gates. Sea gates would block a surge from Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean into the East River and New York Harbor. I think this is the best plan because building a sea gate will prevent the water from going in. When the sea level rises and enters the city it will cause countless numbers of damages and force many people to relocate. No one knows how long it would take to repair the damage from the water so the best thing is to prevent it from going in.