The effects of climate change on New York City given extreme weather patterns

1. As the effects of global warming are slowly but surely affecting every country on the Earth, some of these effects have a high risk factor of causing complete destruction to the landmasses where dense populations are found including New York City. The concept of global warming, although debatable of what is actually is, is evident enough not to be ignored. Global occurrences such as the acceleration of the melting of the ice caps, the transgression and regression of the sea level and temperature increase are constantly being argued if whether or not humans are truly at fault for this climate change. Compared to past records, these statistics are not corresponding to what the planet has adapted to as “normal.” Some make the valid interpretation that in the Earth’s history, there have been times where Earth wasn’t homogeneous. With time and adaption, the Earth began to change and balanced its gas levels to a normal rate. This raises the question: Is the Earth going through another one of it’s phases or are we doing this to ourselves? Within the past few years, New York City has experienced bizarre incidents of extreme weather. The argument remains, however, whether these extremes are directly related to climate change or simply isolated incidents. To come closer to understanding, use of the Wilcoxon Rank-sum test will distinguish statistical correlations between previous temperature, sea level, and carbon level data, which will then be compared to an increased frequency of extreme weather patterns. The effects of climate change on New York City given extreme weather patterns • Extensive research of New York City’s weather patterns in the last few years must be conducted. Data can also be gathered using resources provided by peer reviewed articles and faulty at various CUNY colleges. Research already conducted by professors who are cultured in the subject matter may also be reinterpreted. For example one of our data sources is Professor Alan Benimoff, who conducted studies on the environmental changes on Staten Island after Hurricane Sandy. Other sources would include "Impacts of sea level rise in the New York City metropolitan area" which was a peer reviewed article that focuses primarily on the NYC area and its unique variations over the last few years. Another course of good use is the recent PlaNYC post from 2011 which included a chapter on the climate change in New York City and how the city has pinpointed on areas to place their focus on into order to address the issue of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Discussion of data here, once all data is collected. Analysis Conclusion Acknowledgements: NOAA: National Climatic Data Center National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration