76°
OSSINING, N.Y. – An environmental advocacy group is warning that global warming could cause more flooding in Ossining and other Westchester river towns in the next several years.
Environment New York representatives spoke at Ossining’s Louis Engel Waterfront Park Tuesday morning to release findings from a report that “extreme rainstorms and hurricanes are happening 64 percent more frequently in New York since 1948.” Eric Whalen, the group’s field organizer, said Tuesday during a press conference that the storms could be linked to global warming and could cause extreme weather in Westchester.
“The old adage when it rains it pours is more true now than ever,” Whalen said in Ossining Tuesday. “We’ll see coastal towns and river towns like Ossining and others in Westchester continue to be hit with extreme weather events.”
Whalen pointed to the storms that swept through the Westchester area on Oct. 31 as a prime example.
“We’ve seen evidence of this just last year when the Ossining railroad station was shut down and people lost their lives in New York just due to extreme weather events,” he said. “And that doesn’t include the millions of dollars in property damage throughout the state.”
The report, which is set to be available at Environment New York’s website, summarizes weather statistics over the last several decades. In addition to the increase in extreme rainstorms from 1948 to 2011, the report mentions that heavy downpours and snowstorms that used to occur once a year in 1948 now occur once every 7.3 months on average.
Whalen and others with Environment New York said they are hoping residents realize there are steps they can take to reduce carbon emissions. But Whalen said there are bigger steps area legislators can take as well.
“We’re trying to tell residents that there is something they can do and that is to contact local decision-makers and ask them to reduce global warming pollution in any way that they can,” he said. “Fortunately there are a number of programs that are being put in place and more that can be. The bottom line is that our decision-makers can do a lot, but only if they hear it from the public. It’s important that we offset the pressure from special interests like coal and oil companies and get citizens engaged in our democracy to push back and cut global warming pollution.”
Environment New York is a statewide environmental advocacy organization that “combines independent research, practical ideas, and tough-minded advocacy to overcome the opposition of powerful special interests and win real results for New York’s environment,” according to the group’s website.
Comments (6)
Planet Earth is Not Dying and the Storm Increase that may or may not be accurately reported in this article as told by Eric Whalen, of Environment New York are not the result of our industrialization.
This article and Mr. Whalen's press conference are aimed at 'Selling Fear' and pushing the collective conscience toward a 'Command and Control' economy.
Of course climate change is real. It's not a new thing. Francis is saying that it's been around long before we have. The earth cools, the earth heats up, and cycles back. Al Gore did not invent this concept. Interesting side note: it started as "global warming," and now it's "climate change."
Anyone who has taken elementary science classes knows that climate change has existed as long as the earth has - probably even longer. Like Francis said, it is not solely because of the USA's carbon emissions.
It started as global ice age, then went to global warming when the ice age did NOT occur.
CortlandtLiving: What you and Francis are saying (I believe) is that humans have no responsibility for the change in climate. I am refuting that claim and choose to believe what 99.99% of climate SCIENTISTS state.
Well Francis, I guess you know more than the 99% of climate scientists who say climate change is real. I guess the earth is flat, the sun revolves around the earth and evolution is a hoax, too. Thanks for clearing that up for us.
The best thing we can do to deal with" climate change" is to move to Mars. The earth is going through one of it many cycles in regard to weather change. I would suggest that Mr. Eric Whalen take a trip to China and India, and other countries and tell them to reduce their carbon emissions. We have done OUR part, and I might add, to our economies detriment.
We, the human race have little or no effect on global warming. There was global warming and cooling way before humans inhabited the earth. The records show this to be true. Do you remember over 20 years ago they warned us of the up coming ice age. They have changed global cooling to global warming and now it is climate change. I guess that is like the weatherman saying, a chance of showers. Covers all possibility's.