Rising sea levels has been a popular topic in the scientific community as well as the news. When most people think of rising sea levels, they think of beaches and islands that will be affected, but one place that usually isn’t thought of is New York City. However, scientists have been concerned for New York City for many years now because of its “large population and logistics.” There are over 8 million people living in New York City along with thousands of businesses and industries.
The article talked about how sea levels have risen in the past and how they are predicted to rise in the future. Over the last century, sea levels have risen steadily by about 1.7 to 1.8 mm per year, but in the last decade this number has increased to about 3 mm per year. This sea level rise is contributed to the warming of the oceans and melting of glaciers.
The rate at which sea levels rise is predicted increase as time goes on. The article mentions a study done by Columbia University scientists that predicted “a rise in sea level of 11.8 to 37.5 inches in New York City and 9.5 to 42.5 inches in the metropolitan region by the 2080’s.” The higher the sea level rises, the higher the risk of hurricane storm surge for New York City.
By the 2050s, sea levels are predicted to rise 15 to 19 inches in New York City. By just this 1.5 foot increase in seas can cause a category 3 hurricane on a worst case track, could cause great flooding in many parts of the city bringing about massive destruction. This destruction could ruin buildings, roads, trains, and housing.
In my opinion, this article really opened my eyes to the potential effects of climate change and the possible destruction it could produce in one of the greatest cities in the world. If nothing is done, there will be a lot of negative affects on coastlines and cities. These negative affects will harm businesses, people and industries as a whole.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2006/sealevel_nyc.html
2 comments:
Manhattan is the home of over 8 million people, 800,000 individual businesses, the world famous Wall Street, and the incredibly expensive Upper East Side. Manhattan is a place unlike anywhere else, with its upper class shopping, dining, and hotels. All of these things could be in great risk if nothing is done to control the rate of the changing climate. One of the major affects of climate change is rising sea levels. Rising sea levels could have a huge negative affect on this great city that has so much to offer.
From the statistics above, seas are predicted to rise, as a worst-case scenario, up to 42.5 inches. This rise in sea level of 42.5 inches converts to a rise of almost 3.5 feet. Much of Manhattan is less than 16 feet above sea level, with some parts of lower Manhattan only 5 feet above sea level. Being that Manhattan is so close to sea level, even a slight change in sea level could cause damage.
As previously stated, Manhattan has an incredible 800,000 individual businesses that operate there every day. The firms on Wall Street are what get the most attention as far as money is concerned. In 1999, ten trillion dollars was traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Therefore, not even including any construction, leases, company profits, and even small business income, the not loss accrued because of sea levels rising 42.5 inches would be greater than ten trillion dollars.
Along with the 800,000 businesses located in Manhattan, there are also 8 million people that reside in Manhattan. The Upper East Side is known as one of the most expensive places to live in New York. The average house price in 2006 for the Upper East Side was about 10.1 million dollars over the 54 houses sold that year. This concludes that with a rise of sea levels, over $545.4 million dollars would be lost in real estate if nothing is done about the current climate change issue.
Climate change, in my opinion, is not just a science topic but also an economic topic. The amount of damage that could be possibly avoided in Manhattan is enormous. Climate change is a serious issue and needs to be taken into account by every person to do his or her part.
This article really was surprising and interesting. I never knew the rising sea levels could affect cities like New York City. If Manhattan is effected it could have bad consequences. The damages would probably be in the billions if any significant storm were to hit it. And the number of lives taken would probably be extremely high. I think a study like this should wake people up on the seriousness of global warming.
Most likely, the sea level is going to rise anyway. This is due do to the continual natural heating process from the last ice age. With that in mind, Manhattan and New York City would have been affected anyway. But human involvement and harmful actions done to the environment has steadily increased the problem. Now a problem that would have happened far down the road, could potentially happened in a must faster rate.
I think if this doesn’t make countries and people want to change their lifestyles to help the environment, then I don’t know what will. New York City is arguably the most important city, not only in America but the world. It is the capital of the capitalistic world. If this city gets affected then the world gets affected. It may not be too late to combat global warming. People just need to take environmentally safe step in the future.
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