I haven’t had a chance yet to look at the climate-change-impact report New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg photo-opped yesterday.
A PDF is available here. (Keywords: Goddard, Rockefeller Foundation. Somehow, you get the feeling you know how this one is going to end.)
But here’s the Newsday write-up.
Water levels around New York City could rise by 2 feet or more in the coming decades and average temperatures are likely to go up 4 to 7.5 degrees, according to a report released yesterday by a panel of scientists convened by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The city must adapt to global warming or risk having to rebuild facilities after flooding, Bloomberg said in releasing the report by the New York City Panel on Climate Change.
“Planning for climate change today is less expensive than rebuilding an entire network after a catastrophe,” Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg released the report at a wastewater treatment plant on the Rockaway peninsula where workers were preparing for climate change by raising equipment such as pump motors and circuit breakers from 25 feet below sea level to 14 feet above sea level.
“There is a growing recognition of the need for adaptation to climate change in urban areas, and this initiative of Mayor Bloomberg’s puts New York City in the forefront of this global effort,” said Cynthia Rosenzweig, a senior research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and co-chairwoman of the panel.
The report’s predictions are in line with changes projected by scientists who have studied the global effects of deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels.
The New York City report, which was funded by a $350,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, predicts that sea levels will rise by 12 to 23 inches and possibly more by the end of the century.
According to the report, New York City can expect 2.5 to 4.5 times more days per year over 90 degrees than it experienced from 1971 to 2000.