Flooding · Eco-Chick

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Step It Up 2007 and Sea of People

Feeling like you just can’t curb your carbon emissions much more, and wondering what else YOU can do about global warming? The next step is getting the government on the bandwagon, and Step It Up 2007 is doing just that, through public action:

This April 14th, tens of thousands of Americans will gather all across the country at meaningful, iconic places to call for action on climate change. We will hike, bike, climb, walk, swim, kayak, canoe, or simply sit or stand with banners of our call to action: “Step it up, Congress! Cut carbon 80% by 2050!”
The campaign will culminate on Saturday, April 14th, a national day of climate action, when Americans, representing voting districts throughout the country, will voice their support for this bold and necessary commitment by gathering together and making their voices heard in hundreds of local demonstrations.

There are events going on all over the country. You can find out what’s going on in your local area here.

I’m going to be volunteering to help out in the local NYC event, the fabulously named Sea of People.

New York City’s coastal location makes it particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and more powerful storm events that will result from unabated warming. In combination, these factors could result in the periodic flooding of coastal parts of our city later on in this century. Permanent inundation could result with the collapse of either the Greenland or Antarctic ice shelves, which would lead to a 10 to 20 foot rise in sea level. Such a rise would greatly reconfigure the map of our city, sinking much of lower Manhattan beneath the water. While this may be several generations off, action to avoid such an outcome must begin now.
The Sea Of People project combines the dynamics of a mass rally with the expressive power of an interactive artistic installation. Following a 12 Noon Rally in Battery Park on Saturday, April 14, thousands of participants, dressed in blue, will stretch north in two columns along the projected eastern and western 10-foot waterlines that may one day redefine lower Manhattan under the ten-foot sea level rise scenario.

For inspiration, check out this amazing video of the island of Manhattan going down…. reminds me of the end of the first Planet of the Apes movie…

Thanks to Ben Jervey for the info.

arctic, car, carbon, climate change, dress, Easter, emissions, Events, farm, flooding, Global Warming, local, Manhattan, New York City, NYC, spa, video, water

Where will your city be?

1 Comment

by Katie Kish · 04/01/07

From Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth; what Manhattan would look like…

Despite skepticism and all the video “proof” and GW cover ups, I’m still an avid believer in the fact that global warming is going to screw us all over in a short period of time. It’s finally hitting the news now that major cities would be affected greatly by the rise of sea levels.

More than two-thirds of the world’s large cities are in areas vulnerable to global warming and rising sea levels, and millions of people are at risk of being swamped by flooding and intense storms, according to a new study released Wednesday.

(If anyone can actually find the study online somewhere, let me know, I can’t seem to dig it up anywhere.)

More than 180 countries have populations in low-elevation coastal zones, and about 70 percent of those have urban areas of more than 5 million people that are under threat. Among them: Tokyo; New York; Mumbai, India; Shanghai, China; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

According to satellite data from NASA in 2000 it was estimated that 634 million people lived on the coastal regions. More than 75% were in Asia and this number only increases as globalization promotes movement to the coasts in China and India to foster the shipping methods for world trade.

People living up to 10 meters above sea level are at risk of increased erosion, flooding and severe weather conditions. Just as a statistic to foster to that warning, 90% of the Marshall Islands, Cayman Islands, Turk and Caicos Islands and Maldives are less than 10 meters above sea level. The Maldives population is over 300 000, 60 422 on the Marshall Islands, 45 436 on the Cayman Islands and 21 152 on the Turk and Caicos Islands. 90% of over 427 010 people are at risk of being completely displaced and flooded just on those islands because of our lifestyles.

Go see what your area would look like with a sea level increase.