Bloomberg On Storm Barrier Idea: ‘Not In Your Lifetime’
March 5, 2013
Quote:
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - New York City’s chief executive is skeptical of an idea from overseas on how to protect the city from future storms in the wake of superstorm Sandy.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan has signed an agreement with the Netherlands to share information on how to rebuild the northeast to better protect it against tidal surges, specifically including the possibility of storm barriers on the coastline.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Donovan is a smart guy.
“He’s out there trying to get as much information as he can,” Bloomberg said.
But the mayor made it clear he’s not buying the barrier idea.
“You could block off the harbor. I think the environmental issues and the expense would be enormous and not in your lifetime would you see it and I’m not even sure that it makes any sense,” Bloomberg said Monday. “But that, in theory, you could do.”
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Even though Bloomberg is skeptical, I don't think the next mayor can afford to agree with him when the next hurricane hits.
More Hurricane Surges in the Future
Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
Quote:
By examining the frequency of extreme storm surges in the past, previous research has shown that there was an increasing tendency for storm hurricane surges when the climate was warmer. But how much worse will it get as temperatures rise in the future? How many extreme storm surges like that from Hurricane Katrina, which hit the U.S. coast in 2005, will there be as a result of global warming? New research from the Niels Bohr Institute show that there will be a tenfold increase in frequency if the climate becomes two degrees Celcius warmer. The results are published in the scientific journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, PNAS.
10 times as many ‘Katrinas’
“We find that 0.4 degrees Celcius warming of the climate corresponds to a doubling of the frequency of extreme storm surges like the one following Hurricane Katrina. With the global warming we have had during the 20th century, we have already crossed the threshold where more than half of all ‘Katrinas’ are due to global warming,” explains Aslak Grinsted.
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If this is true, then they better hurry up and build these barriers soon...
