NEW YORK, NY — New York will be hotter, rainier and more likely to flood in the coming decades - with sea levels possibly rising more than four feet, a panel of scientists said Tuesday - “All of the evidence from the science community is that the seas are going to rise,” said Mayor Bloomberg as he unveiled the panel's report.
New York Only to Get Hotter, Rainier and More Flood-Prone
NEW YORK, NY — New York will be hotter, rainier and more likely to flood in the coming decades – with sea levels possibly rising more than four feet, a panel of scientists said Tuesday – “All of the evidence from the science community is that the seas are going to rise,” said Mayor Bloomberg as he unveiled the panel’s report.
“It’s pretty hard to not understand something’s going on, very worrisome and scary, on this planet.
”The planet is changing, and we have to do what we can to make sure we can accommodate it,“ he added. ”Did we, 10 years ago, think about water rising?
“Only a few people talked about it, and it was considered a communist plot. So by that standard, I suppose we have made some progress.”
Academic experts and insurance executives on the panel concluded that average temperatures could rise up to 7.5 degrees by 2080, rainfall could increase by 10% and sea levels will rise two feet.
Some studies predict the polar ice caps will melt much more quickly, which could raise New York’s sea level by 55 inches by the 2080s – more than 4-1/2 feet.
That likely means heavier and more frequent flooding from rainstorms and coastal flooding, the panel conluded, as well as heavier demands on all city infrastructure from electric power to sewers.
Weather experts say New York is due for a hurricane, and the city’s Office of Emergency Management has drawn up evacuation plans that assume huge swaths of lower Manhattan and low-lying areas of the outer boroughs will be underwater during a moderate hurricane.
“The city’s 14 wastewater treatment plants are particularly vulnerable,” said Department of Environmental Protection Acting Commissioner Steve Lawitts.
“Seawalls will be elevated where possible to protect the plants from flooding.”
Bloomberg announced the panel’s findings at a sewage treatment plant in Far Rockaway, Queens, that sits on the water’s edge and is vulnerable to flooding.
Plan superintendent Frank Esposito showed the mayor and top city officials the plant’s eight pump motors at the bottom of a deep concrete pit, where they could be inundated in a heavy storm.
The agency plans to raise them 40 feet sometime in the coming years, at a cost of $30 million.
Many of the agency’s other long-term plans will take decades to plan, city officials said, with a cost still being tallied.
“Each of these projects costs money,” Bloomberg said. “Just to raise the motors that you saw downstairs, that’s a $30 million project. But the number of things at every one of these wastewater treatment plants is significant.”
SHLIACH
this is all nonsense, Moshiach is coming and there will be only good in the world, we just have to think about this, and we will come to believe it, moshiach now!!!1
me
ya right
gaga
canada is the best we r on top of u
I think
SHLIACH..You are right only I think the way it looks now WE will be going to see Moshiach before he get here.
CN
This is all a bunch of nonsense scientifically too. These people need to find G-d and quit k’vetching with their false, ridiculous theories.
Abba
To Shliach:
I agree. We need Moshiach.
BT
When I went to college 35 years ago they were teaching us the same doomsday scenarios, that were all supposed to take place within 10 years.
chaim
the picture looks all too cool to even be realistic or true
mt
to chaim:
they might have taken a statue or something of the statue of liberty, put it in water, and put manhattan background.its not to hard to do that u know
anyway DID Anything like that happen in history? water coming up to the chest of the statue of liberty ?
Chochum
if your gonna “photo shop” it at least do a good job ;)
SHLIACH
to , I THINK i don’t understand your comment, what do you mean it?
DJ
yeah – why is the water calm and once it hits the statue of liberty its gushing?
bad photo-shopping job
mt
to dj
when water, even water that flows calmly, hits something, usually like a stone or branch, (in this case the statue of L) it becomes waves and it goes harder. but i think its a bit exaggerated, i mean such big waves?