>At Earthgarage we generally focus on green automotive topics but every now and then we like to branch out to broader environmental issues such as climate change. It reminds us of why we are in the green automotive business – to reduce emissions, increase efficiency and change our habits in order to help mitigate the potential effects of climate change.
One of the most impactive effects of climate change could be a marked rise in sea levels. This coupled with more frequent severe storms could have devastating consequences for many people living close to sea level including people (like me) living in New York City. Now architects commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York are working on alternative design projects for the future New York in a warming world – that is, how will New York survive the threat of rising sea levels and more portent weather systems. The designs focus on the waterfronts of all five boroughs, but my favorite design involves the creation of marshes stretching into the Hudson and East Rivers off of lower Manhattan. “Instead of beating back the waters with impermeable walls, lower Manhattan could erect a defense line of giant grassy sponges. Fingers of wetland would reach from the city into the East and Hudson Rivers, poised to absorb the surging surf. [The architect] has also developed a new kind of honeycombed street, porous and paved with greenery, to suck storm water into the soil instead of letting it form curbside torrents that overwhelm the sewers and flush raw waste into the harbor.” – nymag.com.
These are the kind of solutions we will have to develop if the suspected effects of climate change come to fruition. In the mean time, we can all try to increase our own efficiencies and try to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels to reduce those potential impacts. Reducing emissions now is a lot easier than changing the landscape of our cities in the future.