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NYC in an Ever-Changing Climate

When the words climate change come up, you think of some of the basic things: Temperature Rise, natural disasters, democrats, tropical places. But what people don’t associate with climate change is NYC. As you may know, Climate Change today is the increase of greenhouse gasses such as Methane(CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) causing heat from the sun to be trapped in our atmosphere. Increasing the temperature of Earth. What people don’t seem to know is how that may affect NYC. More specifically I would say that New Yorkers look over the risks that are imposed in our coastal communities in NYC and the overarching effect of climate change that will affect us in the long run. This research essay will discuss some of the following questions: How does climate change affect New York City? How have we as a people contributed to this danger? But most importantly, how can we make NYC more resilient against climate change?

One problem that climate change has caused for NYC is the intensity of water-related disasters. Specifically hurricanes. The most damaging and deadly hurricane that has ever hit NYC was Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy was a category 3 hurricane. A research paper done in 2021 states how “In 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast of the United States, creating widespread coastal flooding and over $60 billion in reported economic damage.” Not only that,  “Based on total ensemble estimates for ASLR(Anthropogenic Sea Level Rise), 13% (7.5 — 23%) of Sandy damages in the tri-state area are attributable to climate-mediated anthropogenic sea level rise, amounting to $8.1B ($4.7B–$14B)”(Economic damages from Hurricane Sandy attributable to sea level rise caused by anthropogenic climate change). Adding to this, a flood map released by the USGS mapped out all of the flood points during that event(Flood Event Viewer (usgs.gov)). Showing how the areas most affected were open places that were directly in front of the water. Places like Coney Island, Battery Park, Redhook, Canarcy, and the Rockaways. Hurricane Sandy didn’t only affect residential areas. But because of the intensity of the storm surges, according to (The Weather Channel) “ 600 million gallons of stormwater had flooded the nation’s busiest underground transportation system”. Causing major delays. A recent event happened on September 29, 2023. Flash flooding caused the MTA to shut down again and in an extreme situation, Prospect Park Lake overflowed and downpoured into the street. Almost creating a river. Flooding and hurricanes is not the only effect of climate change. 

Another major hazard is the danger of heat stroke. As the years have gone by, global temperatures have been increasing. With every summer, we hit higher highs with no signs of going back to what he had before. Not only does this mean that the sea level will keep rising, but also the intensity of heat waves. For people at home, they are forced to keep their houses air-conditioned. Many people may think that this is a minor problem, but not for those who are poorer. Some families can’t afford an AC or to leave an AC on. Not only that but the heatwaves heavily affect those who are elderly, young, or are limited by respiratory-related illnesses. In a Newsletter called “It’s Going to Be a Hot Summer. It Will Be Hotter if You’re Not Rich.”, she mentions that in certain areas, like  In certain areas like “Crotona Park East in the Bronx, 41 percent of residents fall below the federal poverty line, 24 percent of households lack air-conditioning and few have cars to reach beaches or forests.” and how “Heat kills about 350 New Yorkers each year.” (Barnard, Anne, et al, “It’s Going to Be a Hot Summer. It Will Be Hotter if You’re Not Rich.”)

This can leave many people asking, why is this happening? Well, there are many physical and social causes of this. One of those is our poor choice of infrastructure. Many of your readers are New Yorkers. And as you have already seen, most of our city is made out of concrete. Water can’t run through that concrete, which causes roads to hold water and flood. Adding to this, most roads are made of asphalt, which is usually black. For those who don’t know, darker colors absorb more heat. Therefore making areas like that hotter. Continuing off of this, NYC’s color profile of buildings means that there is even more surface area for the sun to hit and heat our city. Another issue is our drainage system. Much of NYC’s current drainage system wasn’t built with major storms in mind. For example, the Gowanus canal. The Gowanus Canal is one of the most polluted waters in NYC. And when water floods into the drainage system, it causes water to overflow into the canal. Causing the water to rise and for dangerous polluted canal water to leach into residential homes around the area. Finally, an issue that is overlooked is how we and the companies around us contribute to climate change. One of these is where our energy comes from. More than 85 percent of our energy comes from fossil fuels ( Office of the New York City Comptroller Brad Lander). Adding on to the excessive amount of fossil fuels that are in our atmosphere. This comes from a variety of places. From our homes to transportation. An adding factor in how we help increase climate change is how we manage our waste. This may seem nit-picky at first, but when the wrong materials are thrown in the garbage and into landfills like organic food, anaerobic bacteria convert the organic matter into methane gas. And if those landfills were ever to leak, it would release a dangerous amount of greenhouse gasses. Another way we contribute to climate change is how we eat and grow our food. Almost 50% of our land is taken up for agricultural uses(USDA ERS – Land Use, Land Value & Tenure). Many of those plots are areas that used to be forested land that are no longer sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. Not only that, parts of that land are being used for cattle, which are known for releasing an unhealthy amount of nitrogen gas. And by giving a market for these products, we unintentionally help increase the amount of greenhouse gasses. 

Physical problems aren’t the only issue. There are also social issues. One of those is the unfair advantages of rich and poor people in terms of protection from climate change. Going back to Anne Bernard, her article mentions how “In Crotona Park East in the Bronx, 41 percent of residents fall below the federal poverty line, 24 percent of households lack air-conditioning and few have cars to reach beaches or forests. By contrast, in Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side, one of the city’s wealthiest, whitest sections, 96 percent of households are air-conditioned. So many residents have money and flexibility to flee the city that during the hottest weeks last summer, some streets felt empty; the advantages of nearby Central Park were left largely untapped.”(Barnard, Anne, et al, “It’s Going to Be a Hot Summer. It Will Be Hotter if You’re Not Rich.”) Another thing to keep in mind is because of their status, they have access to more funding. Which can go into things like street trees that provide more shade, and increase property value. However, in poorer neighborhoods, less attention is put on trying to make changes like putting more trees or trying to paint roofs white to help decrease heat. This was all caused by redlining. Redlining is a discriminatory practice used to separate neighborhoods and to mark out neighborhoods that were “Risky Investments” and were not worth putting time or money into improving those areas. Similarly, these areas take priority when it comes to aid after natural disasters. One example of this is in the Coney Island community. While many locals were struggling to find aid from damage, popular tourist attractions like Coney Island were almost repaired and remade in an instant.

In many ways, this can make people feel hopeless like there isn’t anything that can be done, or that there isn’t much being done. However, that is far from the truth. As we are progressing through the past decade many improvements have been made to help improve NYC’s resilience to climate change. 

One of these solutions is improving our waterfront defenses. There are two ways of doing this. The first one was making more naturalistic protection and infrastructure. For example, creating oyster reefs to absorb the impact of storm surges, having wetlands to take in flood water and to create natural habitat for wildlife, and building up dunes to keep water from overflowing beachside neighborhoods.  The other idea was to create more man-made solutions. These include sea walls at the front of the city to stop water from coming, creating deployable flood walls for tunnels and highways, and raising the level of certain parks and neighborhoods which have been suggested by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Samantha Maldonado and Stephon Johnson, “See Walls: Army Corps’ Citywide Coastal Storm Plan Takes Shape, Steals Views”). There are a few problems with the second solution. Many of these solutions are very temporary and aren’t very sustainable. Over time, a sea wall will degrade and we will have to keep rebuilding it to keep it in shape and up to date with the rising water. On the other hand, natural solutions are a more sustainable and resilient way of protecting our waterfronts. Not only are they as good in terms of protection, but they will last longer, provide habitat to local wildlife, and it is aesthetically pleasing. Some proof of concepts that have been created are in Brooklyn Bridge Park. They incorporate natural wetlands and more man-made structures called riprap to protect the park and Brooklyn from incoming flood waters.

Another way that we can improve our resilience is by improving our internal infrastructure. More specifically, incorporate green infrastructure into the future and repairs of our city. Green infrastructure consists of buildings and other infrastructures that are specifically designed to manage water ecologically. Some are designed for the street like permeable pavement and bioswales. Where water can be collected from the ground and prevent flooding in the main road. More extreme versions of green infrastructure are creating green roofs. Where the roofs of skyscrapers have room for plants, to absorb rainwater from the roofs of the buildings. And some strategies are more straightforward than most people think. And one of those things is planting more trees on the sidewalk. Having tree planters on our sidewalk holds many benefits. It provides shelter from the heat through shade and releases water vapor, if irrigated properly it can take in stormwater that passes through it. Another very straightforward strategy is painting roofs white. This may seem strange at first. But apartment roofs take up most of the surface area of our city, and with most roofs being gray, a lot of heat is then released. Therefore increasing the overall temperature. If the roofs were painted a more neutral color like white, heat wouldn’t dissipate onto our buildings. And if those roofs aren’t painted gray, they can make room for solar panels, which can help increase the amount of clean energy that can be used by that building. Another step into green infrastructure would be to streamline and increase the effectiveness of public transportation. By making public transportation more accessible and seamless, it would decrease the want to buy or use a car in the city. Bringing down the amount of carbon we would produce. Not only that but if those vehicles were powered by clean energy, then the carbon emissions caused by vehicles could be eliminated.

There are even some solutions that help decrease our carbon footprint and can help businesses as well. One of those is the support of urban farms. Urban farms are farms that are found in highly dense populations. Having urban farms has many advantages. One of those is that they produce less greenhouse gasses. Traditional farming requires clearing land for crops and using thousands of gallons of water that is never recollected. To bring your crops to your buyers, you must import them from miles away. It also requires the constant spraying of pesticides to keep insects and birds away from the crops. However, with urban farming, you can avoid all of that. There are already methods that have proven to work in urban farming. One of these methods is called hydroponics. Hydroponics is a soil-free farming technique that saves water and space. Unlike conventional farming, hydroponics aren’t limited by height, so you can build up, saving a lot of horizontal space. And if it’s kept as a closed system indoors, then pests will not be a problem. Hydroponic plants also tend to grow faster because of how easy it is to apply nutrients directly to the plants. Hydroponics also can vary in different ways. One variant is aquaponics, where fish are grown with plants so that the fish provide nutrients through their waste. And when the fish grow up they can be harvested. Plus, with vertical farming, the old farming space can be converted back into a forest to help mitigate greenhouse gasses. 

As more and more of these solutions start to pop up, more people will try to use these solutions and use it to their benefit. For example, in my local Whole Foods. Where they are based they implemented sustainable infrastructure into their buildings. From a startup company that grows hydroponic plants on its roof to having a parking lot that is shaded with solar panels and turbines. Not only that, but recently small organizations like RiSC started to organize schools close to the school to advocate for more climate awareness programs in school and have supported students in replanting and restoring the Coney Island dunes. The more that we prove that this way moving forward is sustainable, the more people are going to see it and try it for themselves. And hopefully, this will lead to a clean, green NYC.

Strauss, Benjamin H., et al. “Economic Damages from Hurricane Sandy Attributable to Sea Level Rise Caused by Anthropogenic Climate Change.” Nature Communications, vol. 12, no. 1, 18 May 2021, p. 2720, www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22838-1?fbclid=IwAR269i-mcAGD1cA6sJrQASGgmj8gs3pQ1L7syw8rSPkZLmCT6jaoQVlTN7w, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22838-1.

“Flood Event Viewer.” stn.wim.usgs.gov, stn.wim.usgs.gov/fev/#2012Sandy. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.

 

Barnard, Anne, et al. “It’s Going to Be a Hot Summer. It Will Be Hotter If You’re Not Rich.” The New York Times, 28 May 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/05/28/nyregion/heat-waves-climate-change-inequality.html.

Nyc.gov, 2022, comptroller.nyc.gov/services/for-the-public/nyc-climate-dashboard/energy/.

“USDA ERS – Land Use, Land Value & Tenure.” Usda.gov, 2018, www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/land-use-land-value-tenure/.

‌“See Walls: Army Corps’ Citywide Coastal Storm Plan Takes Shape, Steals Views.” THE CITY – NYC News, 27 Jan. 2023, www.thecity.nyc/2023/01/27/sea-wall-army-corps-nyc-coastal-plan/. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.

Student Author Profile: 

Mathew Lizardi, A Unique Person With a Unique Narrative

Matthew Lizardi. a student at CCNY, majoring in computer science/engineering. He hopes to take what he learns in computer science/engineering and use it to help him become a video game designer. During an interview I had the pleasure of being on, I learned a lot from him. One of those was his opinion of writing in the context of video game design. He described how writing takes a bigger role in video game design than most people think. Having a good grasp of writing clearly and making that writing compelling was important to him.

Which makes total sense. In video game design, one thing you will have to do is give Game Design Documents (GDD), which are the blueprints of a video game. Which describes the game, its designs, its story, and its mechanics. Knowing how to write clear and concise documentation is very important for your game to have a clear path and end goal. With a GDD, your team can see what the game should and shouldn’t be about and code accordingly. It can attract publishers that are interested in the concepts presented in the GDD. Problems in the Documentation can be easily pointed out and edited early on, and it can give a baseline of the game’s storyline or narrative that can build off of the GDD. From this, I can understand why he thinks that knowing how to write clearly and how to write compellingly are important parts of video game design.

In this interview, we were also able to go over his Written Narrative. And during that moment, I was able to learn a lot about his essay. It was very nice to hear his opinion about the competition. How it has helped him and how it can help others too. He conveyed this very nicely through the testimony he gave in his essay. 

He highlighted how much of an impact it was when he got into a friendly competition. When he was in high school, he had a friend who would always tease him about his grades. Mainly how he had higher grades than Mattew. But, when his friend’s grades started to go down, he felt inspired and motivated to work harder to beat his friend. And in the end, he did. As he described this experience, he also added how if it wasn’t for this, he wouldn’t have tried so hard to improve in his class. 

Which gives a very compelling message on competitiveness and how in many ways it can push people to do better. Not only that, but the fact that his testimony was about his time in high school will attract the interest of other high schoolers. Especially those who are trying to find motivation to study. Some students, may not have a reason for studying or working hard in school. The main reason is that they don’t have any incentive to do so that is interesting enough for them. However, having a mindset of competitiveness with one another could encourage students to compete. To do better than those around them. And in turn, have better and better grades.

 One thing that was interesting about his written narrative was his use of Spiderman. In our interview, he mentioned how much he admired Spiderman. Talking about how it inspired him to do better and be better. He admired him so much that he ended up using lines from the movie Spiderman into the Spiderverse in his narrative. Using quotes from the intro of the movie, and wrapping it into his text. 

This is an exciting way to incorporate something he’s passionate about into an essay. However, I would say that this works in his favor. Mainly, to help get the attention of his young audience. For the most part, Spider-Man Into The Spiderverse was a very mainstream movie for high schoolers. Having something relatable in the text would help draw the audience in. If they think that the text has similarities to them, then they would feel more welcome and akin to the narrative. Not to mention, having the message be relatable to them would make it easy for the audience to consider his message. Making the message seem more like a helpful suggestion instead of a radical life change or lifestyle. 

In conclusion. Matthew Lizzardi, is a freshman majoring in computer science. During his time in English 1100, he has learned a lot. He learned about rhetorical devices and how to use rhetoric in his writing. Not only that, but he had time to self-reflect. On how writing has a bigger impact on his interests than he had ever expected. Also when he wrote his narrative, he realized how much competitiveness helped him in subjects that he used to not care about. 

A Philippine-Ish Narrative

For those who don’t know. I am a Filipino American.

And for those who don’t know what a Filipino is, a Filipino is a person from the Philippine islands. As for my parents, my mom was a descendant of a tribe in Davao called the Bagobo tribe while my dad came from the poor farm provinces of Bulacan. The Philippines is an amazing place with great food, culture, people, and language. Which all of those I sadly missed out on. Unlike my parents, I was born in the US. Where opportunity is as vast as the people. Sadly, most of those people weren’t Filipino.

As I started school, one thing my teachers told my parents was that they should refrain from teaching me Tagalog. Which really got to my parents. Especially to my dad who did not speak English very well. From my schools words, they told them that teaching me my language wouldn’t be good because then I would try to mix the language up or I may not understand English well enough to pass. And from that point on, my parents encouraged me to speak English. And they didn’t only want me to speak it, they wanted me to cherish it. They told me that I needed English if I wanted to make a living in New York. They told me I needed to be able to speak fluently and be able to say my thoughts. And as far as I can tell, I have tried my hardest to do well in speaking and writing English. And my parents taught me some Tagalog. But only when it came to labeling people. It was stuff like Lolo and Lola meant Grandma and Grandpa. Ate and Kuya meant older sister and brother. At that time when I was younger, I felt proud that I could speak English well compared to my parents at least. But that mindset changed a little when I visited the Philippines for the first time.

This was my second time going to the Philippines. 2019

The first time I went to the Philippines was when I was 6. This was going to be the first time I ever met my cousins. I remember being excited to meet them, hoping they’d tell me cool stuff. Mainly about insects and fun reptiles they see. But when I got there, things seemed off. Everyone was talking around me, saying hi, talking to my parents. But I couldn’t understand anyone. Everyone there was speaking Tagalog. And like my parents, when I would try to talk to them, they would only speak even more broken English. It felt like I was with a bunch of strangers, speaking in a strange tongue. A strange tongue I wanted to know. And on my second time visiting, when I was 14, that feeling of being left out felt even worse. When I would talk to my cousins, they tended to swap from one conversation that would start in English, but then swap languages and start a completely different conversation. which caused a huge disconnect.

Me with my cousins from Davao

I don’t have any resentment in them for doing this because this was their home language. But I only wish that I could have been a part of that. A part of their language and a part of their culture. And then I started to have a lingering thought in my mind. “If only I could speak Tagalog.” And I guess that’s the thing with language. Language is what connects people. It’s how people tell each other how they’re doing, it’s how information and information are passed down. And most importantly, it’s how the community was formed, And I was excluded from this. And like I said in the first paragraph, no one around me was Filipino, so I couldn’t learn about my culture from the people around me. And what scares me most of all is if I have a family, with a wife and kids, and they ask me “What’s it like to be a Filipino”? Because if they ask this, I wouldn’t be able to give them an answer, or I could only tell them a small part of it. Which would only skim the surface of the true culture of the Philippines.

With all that being said, I am still grateful that my parents encouraged me to learn proper English. I mean without it, I probably couldn’t have passed school, gotten into my first internship, or even written my college essay. Not only that, without me knowing proper English, I probably couldn’t have met all the friends I made in high school. So the point I’m getting at is that I’m not regretting the fact that I learned English. But I think that they could have taught me in my native tongue as well as encouraged me to speak English. If my school had been more encouraging, I could have been able to dive deeper into knowing my culture and where I came from.

Turon. My favorite Filipino dessert