New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff signed on to environmental apocalypse in his Thursday review of Rising Currents: Projects for New York's Waterfront, a research program that he said was "conceived to address the potential effects of rising water levels and apocalyptic storms on the city."
But the program's real subject is frustration with the federal government's snail-like response to global warming, the brutal effects of the financial crisis, wasteful infrastructure projects and squandered intellectual resources. Its aim is to prod government to think more creatively about our nation's crumbling and outdated fabric.
The idea began taking shape several years ago, after the prominent New York engineer Guy Nordenson visited New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and was prompted to study the impact that global warming could have on a seemingly safe coastal city like New York. His findings were alarming: for example, according to a recent study by New York City's panel on climate change, even at current rates of global warming water levels will rise as much as two feet by 2080 as the atmosphere gets hotter. If the ice cap melts at a faster rate, Mr. Nordenson added, the figure could double. In that case a storm surge on top of that could put 20 percent of the city under water.
This is not the first time the paper's architecture critic has ventured into liberal social policy. In September 2008, Ouroussoff made the Sunday Week in Review with a story blaming President Reagan for the fatal collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis:
This kind of bold government planning died long ago, of course, a victim of both the public's disillusionment with the large-scale Modernist planning strategies of the postwar era and the anti-government campaigns of the Reagan years. The consequences were obvious as soon as Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. And they have been reaffirmed many times since, with the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis and myriad accounts of our country's crumbling infrastructure.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigation later concluded that a design flaw, not insufficient maintenance, caused the collapse.
—Clay Waters is the director of Times Watch, an MRC project tracking the New York Times.
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How ironic!
October 22, 2009 - 16:08 ET by CobraManMost of Manhattan Island will be underwater? How ironic, since most of Manhattan used to be underwater before the wise and powerful NY'ers decided to apply landfill, drain swamps, ponds, and lakes, divert rivers and build underground canals, all to create new land. So, all that's going to happen is that Manhattan Island will revert to it's natural state. And this is a catastrophe, how?
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.
The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus.
The US Supreme Court
Cobra, I was going to ask:
October 22, 2009 - 19:49 ET by MikeBCobra, I was going to ask: "New York City suddenly underwater? And, you talk as if this is a bad thing?"
Even the IPCC acknowledges that it would take a couple of thousand years for the sea level to rise that high. We have another barking moonbat sounding its mating call for liberal chicks. I guess there is no accounting for taste.
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan
Is Manhattan under water
October 22, 2009 - 22:21 ET by ahussera bad thing?
"Somehow, I told you so, just doesn't quite say it." Will Smith in 'I, Robot.'
Hey with all that structure
October 22, 2009 - 16:08 ET by ninerdogHey with all that structure under water the fishing will be bitchen!!
None of the links are working
October 22, 2009 - 16:13 ET by R D HelmLOL-Or is it just me?
-Dave
Our elected representatives have failed us.
thanks for the heads up
October 22, 2009 - 16:46 ET by Clay WatersDon't know what happened there. The links should work now.
Clay Waters
Director of Times Watch
Whew! For a moment there, I was thinking that perhaps Obama's...
October 22, 2009 - 16:59 ET by R D Helm...Internet czar was trying out his shiny new control panel...on me.
:-O
-Dave
Our elected representatives have failed us.
Dave... Heck...they've
October 22, 2009 - 17:05 ET by bigtimerDave...
Heck...they've got the a few of the Internet Czars at work.
Look what's coming on down the road...soon.
As many of us knew it would.
'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart
bt,
October 24, 2009 - 08:29 ET by R D HelmYep, and the sheeple just go about their business, totally oblivious to what this could mean to our freedom and liberty. And soon.
Once the feds get control of the Internet, and I nave no doubt they mean to eventually take 100% of it, there will be no getting them out of it.
Scary.
-Dave
Our elected representatives have failed us.
News Alert!
October 22, 2009 - 16:17 ET by Jerry MackReacting to this unchallengeable information President Obama met with 2 of his top advisors, Maddow and Olbermann. The solution they came up with is to build a 50 foot tall cement fence completly around manhattan. The president says that not only will these provide safety for the residents but will create 3,000,000 jobs and keep the unemploment rate from reaching 25%.
Interesting idea
October 22, 2009 - 19:35 ET by Joe CamelThis is an interesting idea. So, once the wall is built, can we fill it with water...always fun to see rats jump..
Excellent!
October 22, 2009 - 16:25 ET by slickwillie2001Venice on the Hudson! How romantic. We can import some of those boats with the curly ends. This should be a boon for tourism.
Wall street floods
October 22, 2009 - 16:29 ET by another_old_veteranI get a vision of fat cats in Brooks Brothers suits paddling away on rafts made of bundles of cash.
The Democratic party makes the Keystone Cops look like a precision drill team and 'their' Congress wins the Rube Goldberg award.
50 days comrade
October 22, 2009 - 16:36 ET by nadadhimmiMankind, according to Gordon Brown in Britain, has but 50 days left to save the Planet. Yes my friends, less than 2 months to save Planet Earth from; what?. Oh yeah, 50 days to submit to Brown, Obama and the rest of the envirofascists. For our own good dontcha know. Us pore ole, ignurnt, dumbass, redneck, clinger wingnuts just aint got no dang idea what's best for us'ns. But shoot, ole gordon and barack sho do...... Never mind that we are most likely entering into a Dalton Solar minimum the like of which have not been seen since the Little Ice Age. In 30 yrs we will need all the fossil fuel we can get just to keep from starving and freezing. Remember, the Black Death began in 1347, shortly after a sudden cooling cycle. We are seeing the viruses and Bacteria mutate and proliferate as never before because they are responding to this massive, sudden cooling phase. Cold and sickness go together, we are seeing both, and our moronic leaders ask us to follow them over a cliff.
nada... Gordon is
October 22, 2009 - 16:43 ET by bigtimernada...
Gordon is algore's newest bestest buddy.
'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart
All these poor -
October 22, 2009 - 17:03 ET by Chris NormanAll these poor - architecture - theatre - food - movie - fashion - critics. They're frustrated liberal political writers. They're forced to sneak in their weighty liberal political opinions into the frivolous things they're supposed to be writing about.
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
New York Under Water.
October 22, 2009 - 17:00 ET by AvitarThe question is when? The sea level rose between five and five and a half inches since 1900. That is quite a slow down from the 18 inches per century average over the last 20,000 years, If you melted all of the ice that exists right now the oceans would only rise 40 feet. I think that Obama strategy of encouraging and Iranian Nuclear attack will get rid of Manhattan much faster.
When is Right
October 22, 2009 - 17:19 ET by dboSince satellite readings were introduced 16 years ago, sea level trend at New York (Longitude 73, latitude 41)is completely flat.
Avitar....the Atlantic Ocean
October 22, 2009 - 20:04 ET by celatorAvitar....the Atlantic Ocean will not rise even if all the ice in the Arctic melts. The Arctic ice displaces exactly the same amount of water that, well, melted ice would. Archimedes Principle, plain and simple, and also because Arctic ice is made up of the same material as ocean water--salt and water. Buoyancy and all that.
It's a little different in the Antarctic where the ice shelf is made of fresh water. There, there would be a slight rise, nothing like the professional fear mongers are telling us. In fact, the ice pack in the Antarctic has grown something like 8-10 percent in the last few years.
Here's an interesting article about all this..
http://www.seed.slb....
No citizen's right to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, or property is safe as long as Obama is President of the United States.
The ice on top of the land
October 23, 2009 - 13:49 ET by Dan The Man 2The ice on top of the land mass that is the Artic and Antartica and the glaciers may make a difference. But, the ice masses in the water will make little if any difference.
What Was That Figure? $24.00 Worth of Beads?
October 22, 2009 - 17:10 ET by CGattonAnd people thought the Europeans took advantage of the Natives, lol. So who's laughing now, as the island vanishes.
On a marginally more serious note. It's the nature of islands to rise and sink. So be it. If the climate wasn't in a constant state of flux, there wouldn't have been multiple ice ages, now, would there.
V/R
Clyde
"...the aspirants to tyranny are either the...men of the state, who in democracies are demagogues,... or those who hold great offices, and have a long tenure.." - Aristotle, Politics, c350BC
Isn't New York already under water?
October 22, 2009 - 18:10 ET by TigerI thought New York was already drowning.
Follow the $$$$
October 22, 2009 - 18:16 ET by Edhenry...storm surge could put 20% underwater..
unless we spend 50% of GDP on research at universities, grants for (liberal) climatologists and otherwise subsidize newspapers.
follow the $$$$$
It'd be the first time that
October 22, 2009 - 20:54 ET by RR GOPIt'd be the first time that part of the world was clean in like 250 years.
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 86% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.
Could we get that
October 23, 2009 - 07:21 ET by John53Could we get that lucky?
The only down side of this that we would spead the liberal mental disorder over a wide portion of the country, could we just send them to New Jersey or Massacusetts? That disorder is already deeply embedded there.
High School Physics
October 23, 2009 - 08:47 ET by docjohn52When water freezes, it expands. (Freeze a bottle of water, and watch it)
When ice melts, the water level goes down. Put two ice cubes in a glass of water, and watch the water line.
If the earth gets any 'hotter', we're all going to freeze to death, and the water level will go down, not up.
As to New York, putting that much infrastructure on an island was monumental stupidity anyway.
You wanna help New York avoid the cataclysm, send them suitcases.