Tag: New York

New York City in the Time of COVID: Tragedy and Farce

Since the appearance of COVID-19, it would be impossible to keep track of the number of news stories declaring the demise of New York. As the city continues to flub the reopening of its public schools (now delayed for a second time), the New York Post features op-eds titled ‘De Blasio’s latest school retreat sends clear message to parents: Give up on NYC.’ For months, stories of a potential real estate apocalypse have filled the news with the fear that office workers will never return to business district. Of course, the requisite fleeing to the spacious suburbs narrative has also been prominent. More

Source: New York City in the Time of COVID: Tragedy and Farce – CounterPunch.org

New York’s Rising Tides: Climate Inequality and Sandy’s Legacy 

It is easy to think of New York as more of a concept, an easily traversable, cosmopolitan hub, than a place, a part of the natural world. Covid-19 has clarified that our health and lifespan is tied to a zip code. Climate change will make the consequences of the environmental history of the land, of both overdevelopment and neglect of the coasts, of environmental racism and displacement, and of our economic and cultural reliance on our coasts and waterways terribly apparent as the city’s water returns like a recovered memory. 

Source: New York’s Rising Tides: Climate Inequality and Sandy’s Legacy | by Willa Glickman | The New York Review of Books

New York: the new Atlantis

In an article published on Thursday, AFP outlines some of IPCC’s findings on how climate change will affect different parts of the world. The U.S., according to AFP’s review of IPCC data, “is particularly vulnerable to encroaching seas” unless global emissions are reduced — and that includes New York City, which AFP reports “could expect a 2.25-metre flood event once every five years between 2030-2045. In 1800, such a flood was expected every 500 years on average.”

Source: ‘We are sitting on a timebomb’: IPCC has drafted a new report on climate change — and it’s daunting – Alternet.org