It’s fairly well agreed that the increase in the sea levels is caused at least partly by global warming. This would certainly worsen effects of storms like Sandy – primarily due to the increased effects of the Storm surge which coastal communities dread so much.
But there is no definitive answer to whether climate change including the falling levels of Artic sea ice have any direct influence on either the intensity or direction of a Superstorm like Sandy. Although there is much disagreement between scientists one point is not in dispute, that the increased risks of these storm surges need thinking about. The economic impact alone means that some serious decisions need to be taken for the long term and short term periods.
For example in New York, they’re going to need to repair the flooded subways pretty quickly. However a long term view needs to be taken and one the most obvious is building a huge multi billion dollar flood barrier to protect the Lower side of Manhattan from the levels of storm surge that are now possible.
There are other areas in the US that perhaps might simply just need abandoning. Protecting from these storm surges is extrmely expensive and there are areas which it is simply not possible. But we need to adapt and recognise that there is a change in our climate and that extreme weather events are going to become much more common.
If there is one good thing about Sandy then hopefully – the environmental issues will be moved up the Presidential election ladder. There is no denying that our cimate is changing and these events have a huge impact on society and the economy. The clean up from Sandy is very likely to be in tens of billions of dollars.
If you want to read about the various issues that are facing the planet and it’s environment then check out the new Horizon and Natural History shows on the BBC. If you can’t access the BBC IPlayer application then check this post out , it has all the information you need to change your IP address to a UK one and bypass the filters.
There are other options for accessing these websites which are particularly useful if you’re interested in environmental news sites from across the globe, one of the newest is called Smart DNS which is a sophisticated DNS service which can allow you