New York City may need to "pull up its pants" as scientists predict the city could experience sea level rises as much as 6 feet in the coming century.
Along with rising sea levels, the city can look forward to rising temperatures and extreme rainfall events, a report from a group of climate experts says.
The New York City Panel on Climate Change says the city's inhabitants can expect a wet, overheated future, putting it squarely in with both national and international trends identified by other leading expert bodies.
Since 1900 the city's annual average temperature has risen by around 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit, with another 4.1 to 5.7 degrees rise predicted for the middle of this century, the panel says.
By the year 2080, sea levels could be 18 to 39 inches above current heights, and could be a full 6 feet above today's level by 2100, it predicts.
Finally, the city will probably see a 5 to 13 percent increase in its annual rainfall by the 2080s, the report says.
"These changing climate hazards increase the risks for the people, economy, and infrastructure of New York City," the report authors say.
While the projected sea level rises are specific to New York City, "projections based on similar methods would not differ greatly throughout the coastal corridor from Boston to Washington, D.C.," they explain.
The city should consider efforts to both mitigate climate change caused by human activity and adapt to it, the report recommends.
"Sea level rise is an extremely challenging problem that requires both greenhouse gas emissions reduction and adaptation measures to successfully protect vulnerable coastal areas," says Michael Oppenheimer, a professor at Princeton University who worked on the report. "This report is a model of how technical information can support decision-making."
City officials say such decisions won't be easy to arrive at or implement.
"Adapting the city for the risks of climate change is one of the great challenges of our time," Daniel Zarrilli, director of the mayor's Office of Recovery and Resiliency, says.
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg set up the New York City Panel on Climate Change in 2008, and in 2012 the New York City Council made it a permanent body, requiring it to meet at least twice each year and produce a climate impact report at least every 3 years.
"This report ... advances the science of climate resiliency and highlights the risks the City faces from multiple climate impacts, making it clear that we must continue to build a stronger, more resilient New York," Zarrilli says.
