It seems true that early September is not really the best time to be in New York City. Twenty years ago, we experienced the Twin Towers attack that changed the world. This year, Hurricane Ida ensured that New Yorkers will have another memorable September. The rain was so bad that the whole city was under water.
Unfortunately, at least 45 people have died in this storm. This is the first time in New York City’s history that a flash flood warning has been issued, which is a big deal. Residents were trapped in rapidly flooding basements, and power was out in many places. It raises awareness of global warming and what it is doing to our climate, a historic damage and human loss on a historic scale.
More than 20 million people are trapped in the flood warning zone. Fire spread in many places. All of this has led New York Governor Kathy Hochul to advocate for a carbon-neutral policy to avoid making climate change worse than it already is. It may be too late for dozens of New Yorkers, but the right policy choices could save millions more.
Whether you believe in global warming or whether you believe that humans have the power to prevent or influence it or not, it all makes little sense when you look at these pictures. This is an unprecedented natural disaster and we must do everything we can to prevent it from happening again. There may be some climate change deniers with people whose basements are flooded. Some of them may even have lost their lives. But regardless of our political views, no one wants this to happen to anyone again. If we can somehow affect this, we should do it better.