Panel: Climate Change in NYC: Designing and Building for What’s to Come

11:33 AM EDT on May 20, 2007

According to Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research, the sea level around New York City may rise more than two feet by the year 2080. In addition, "flooding by major storms would inundate many low-lying neighborhoods and shut down the metropolitan transportation system with much greater frequency." Increases in average temperature in the same period are predicted to be between 4 and 10 degrees. The impact on the city's infrastructure will be profound.

Climate Change in NYC: Designing and Building for What's to Come

We invite you to hear the experts share their answers.

Dr. Radley Horton, climatologist, Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University
Michael A. Fishman, Associate Director, Halcrow New York
Laurie Kerr, Senior Policy Advisor in the Mayor's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability
Dr. Kevin J. Phillips, principal and hydrologist, FPM Group Ltd.
Moderator: Michael Gerrard Esq., Partner, Arnold & Porter. Mr. Gerrard is the editor of the book Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, recently published by the American Bar Association, which examines the role of the law in developing mechanisms to protect the climate -- in energy conservation, expansion of renewable energy technologies, and implementation of emission caps and trading programs.

Aaron Donovan

Before he began blogging about land use and transportation, Aaron Donovan wrote The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund's annual fundraising appeal for three years and earned a master's degree in urban planning from Columbia. Since then, he has worked for nonprofit organizations devoted to New York City economic development. He lives and works in the Financial District, and sees New York's pre-automobile built form as an asset that makes New York unique in the United States, and as a strategic advantage that should be capitalized upon.

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