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Mayor Michael Bloomberg, addressing a meeting on New York City's recovery from Hurricane Sandy yesterday, spoke of a future in a warming world with the stark reality of more such devastating storms, saying the city will lead the way in stemming climate change.
"We cannot solve the problems associated with climate change alone here
in New York City, but I think it's fair to say we can lead the way,"
Bloomberg said during his speech, which was broadcast on local news
channel NY1.
was a record-breaking storm by many measures, from its tremendous storm
surge to its low pressure and strong winds — and potentially in its
overall costs.
And while linking any particular storm to climate change is tricky,
scientists do say changes in climate will shift the odds toward more extreme weather events.
They often use the analogy of loading the die, such that one roll may
or may not be the result of a modified die but after many rolls the
biased results become clear.
"This was a complex storm, so we do need to be cautious about linking
it to climate change," Jonathan Foley, an ecosystem researcher who is
director of the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment, told LiveScience in November. "Only some of its components may have been due to climate change."
For instance, warmer sea-surface temperatures, which fuel storms like
Sandy, along with higher sea levels likely only magnified Hurricane
Sandy, according to climate scientist Michael Mann, of Pennsylvania
State University.
And as Bloomberg pointed out this morning, there was less than a 1
percent chance of Sandy's coastal storm surge that reached 13-14 feet (4
meters), which included storm surge and a high tide, in New York City's
Battery Park. It was the highest in at least two centuries, and
something that can be attributed to climate change, Mann said in
November.
"Someone set the fire with meteorology, but climate change added the fuel," Foley said.
Today, Bloomberg announced he has set in place a team to craft concrete
recovery plans for those hit hardest by Sandy and plans for dealing
with the risks we face from climate change. "The biggest challenge we face is adapting our city to the risks associated with climate change," Bloomberg said.
As for how he plans to do that, Bloomberg first noted some projects
that are already in the works, including restoring 127 acres (51
hectares) of wetlands, which act as natural barriers to storm surge.
(Related, 15-foot-high sand dunes built along some of Long Island,
proved their worth during Hurricane Sandy, protecting those communities
from catastrophic damage that was evident in places on the island
without the man-made dunes, reported the New York Times.)
By 2030, Bloomberg said the goal is to reduce the city's carbon
footprint, or ultimately the amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide
is released into the atmosphere, by 30 percent.
He also mentioned a "green infrastructure" project that would capture
rainwater before it floods coastal areas, an expansion of Staten
Island's stormwater management system called Bluebelt, as well as some
zoning changes for coastal building.
A new recycling center being built in Brooklyn's coastal Red Hook
neighbourhood is an example of what these zoning changes can do: The
center is elevated above the flood plain and escaped any significant
damage from the storm surge.
"We can't just rebuild what was there and hope for the best," Bloomberg said.
Mayor Bloomberg also said that the city was looking at climate change
and storm impacts to the city's critical infrastructure, such as its
subway system (the largest in the nation), its tunnels and utilities,
such as electricity and cellphone towers.
"We have to re-examine all of our major infrastructure in light of Sandy," Bloomberg said.
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