AccuWeather Forecasting Senior Director Dan DePodwin and AccuWeather Climate Expert Brett Anderson discuss the top headlines related to climate change in the April 11 edition of Climate In The News.
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00:00Today we'll cover two different climate stories starting with the impact of
00:03climate change on people's wealth and then turning specifically to the New
00:08York City area and looking at how homes could be reduced or the areas that
00:12homes can be built can be reduced due to flooding as we head through the next 15
00:16years. This first story, Brett, from The Guardian that focuses on the impact of
00:20climate change and potentially making people poorer over the next 10-20 years.
00:24Yeah, the new study looked at the economic models taking into account
00:30climate change forecasts and what they came up with is alarming actually. The
00:35average person could lose about 40% of their wealth if we warmed about four
00:40degrees Celsius, which is on the extreme side. Even 16% loss of wealth if we
00:46warmed to two degrees Celsius, which we're already very close to right now. And so
00:50what was the difference between this study and previous studies? This study seems to
00:52be a bit more far-reaching in scope. Yeah, it takes into account the impacts of
00:57extreme events, incorporates extreme events, droughts, floods, with global
01:02supply chains. And if you disrupt the global supply chains across the world,
01:06obviously you're going to have a disruption of food, clothing, electronics, you name it.
01:11And that's also going to equal much more expensive things as well. Yeah, all weather
01:16is local, but the weather across the world does impact goods where you are too
01:20because of those global supply chains. It underscores the need for immediate action on
01:24the climate change mitigation front. The second story today from the New York Times that focuses
01:30specifically on the New York City area and how 80,000 homes could be lost to flooding over
01:35the next 15 years by 2040. That's a staggering number. Yeah, the number is high. I'm not surprised
01:41with the flooding aspect over the next 15 years. We're seeing this occur more and more just with the
01:45weaker storms. Already, we've had a 300 to 900 percent increase in high tidal flooding in the
01:52region since over the past 50 years. Sea level rise about 1.6 inches per decade and accelerating.
01:59Yeah, the sea level rise, the high tide flooding certainly great contributing factors to flooding
02:03the New York City area. Some major storms in the past have caused flooding with what was left of
02:07Hurricane Ida, obviously Sandy being a major event for the New York City area. It seems like most of these,
02:13where I guess the housing laws could be really across the New York City area but focused in
02:16certain parts of the city. Yeah, Staten Island's a big one of course, Queens, Long Island. Westchester
02:22County was also included in that, but I would say Staten Island is probably the biggest because it's
02:26flat right up against the water there as well. Now, there are some proposals that have been made to
02:31alleviate this potential problem. Major zoning changes, retreat back away from the ocean, flood walls as well.
02:40Yeah, so certainly some types of mitigation strategies are either being employed or could
02:45be explored in the future, but very costly as well, although the cost of doing nothing
02:51has a cost down the road. Sure outweighs doing nothing. It does. There will be a cost at some
02:56point, whether we do it now or some point in the future. Well, thank you, Brett, for that insight. For
03:00other stories about climate and information, you can find that at acciweather.com slash climate.