![]() ![]() Ignorance of impending change is a breeding ground for chaos, and in this regard, it seems the local leaders of the Five Boroughs are lodging their heads further in the sand instead of recognizing that those younger than themselves are going to inherit a collection of islands that are sinking both physically and financially. But one year later, when Breezy Point burned to the ground and the West Side Highway was indeed underwater, the prediction did not seem so laughable.īreezy Point after Sandy, image by Mike Groll/The Associated Press Vague dates in the future have been a problem in the debate surrounding climate change, and in 2011, critics pointed to the research of Dr. And with events like Sandy already being outranked by catastrophes like Hurricanes Harvey and Maria, the wealthiest Baby Boomers who make it into the 2040s are likely to see their oceanfront property begin to wash away entirely. But Millennials and Gen X’ers are likely to be subject to noticeable shifts in actual shorelines as the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica continue to collapse. With that number yawning to upwards of 20 feet by 2200, it is difficult to conceive of practical impacts worsening within the short-term. What comes next means that a repeal of preservationists’ spider webs of red tape is unavoidable, by politics or by nature, within the next century.Ĭurrent estimates project approximately five to six feet of sea level rise by 2100, and a worst-case of over eight feet. Worsening impacts have already resulted in an instance where landmark after landmark was inundated by saltwater. But climate change will ultimately prove these to have been futile, and it is time for the denizens of the West Village and elsewhere to practice what they preach when it comes to recognizing the impending effects of weather weirding. On the surface, the efforts of Jane Jacobs had enduring positive impacts. Hurricane Harvey’s flooding in Houston, image by NOAA ![]() It is increasingly clear, now more than ever, that New Yorkers must choose between saving the crumbling past, or preparing for a difficult but potentially salvageable future. If that were not enough, national losses from disasters influenced by climate change or otherwise surpassing $400 billion in 2017, or approximately four percent of the United States’ gross domestic product, with Harvey’s total alone falling just short of $200 billion. However, the politics of preservation are about to run into headwinds that are rapidly worsening, and now, concrete measurements of indisputable changes in local climatology are making it obvious that the 35% increase in atmospheric Carbon Dioxide since the writing of “White Christmas” is increasingly impacting the lives of the Five Boroughs’ inhabitants. New York City’s NIMBY populations generally fashion themselves among the more liberal members of society at large. While this adheres to most climactic predictions, the discord between snowfall and temperatures show that general vague statements about what is coming next fail to describe the more dramatic changes actually occurring on the ground, which are seemingly impossible to predict based on current modeling.Īpproximate Global Carbon Dioxide levels over the past few centuries, data from CO2 Levels The City now regularly contends for its hottest-month-on-record, and while strikingly negative anomalies like February of 2015 still occur, the overall trend is warmer. The statistics get even weirder when considering that mounting snowfall totals come in spite of temperatures that continue to increase in general. ![]() With New York City’s median recent snowfalls tripling in a matter of two decades and surpassing totals at the end of the Little Ice Age at the same time that temperatures have continued to warm, it is time for the city’s inhabitants to ask why exactly this is happening, and consider the practical implications that a rapidly-shifting climate will have on real estate. What has followed is nothing short of a holiday miracle: in the subsequent eighteen years, snowfall has increased in an unprecedented fashion across much of the Northeastern seaboard, with the rolling median at Central Park now reaching 40 inches. When “White Christmas” was written in 1942, Irving Berlin had good reason to yearn for the snows “just like the ones used to know.” Measurements of the white stuff in Manhattan had been slumping since the late 1800s, with the 15-year rolling median of 35.5 inches from 1884 falling to a mere 15.6 inches by the year of the song’s release, and then plunging further, to only 13.4 inches in 1998-99.
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