Hello!! Thanks for stopping by!! My name is Maryem Shalaby and I am a student at LaGuardia Community College taking an awesome English 101 course revolving around climate change.

The New York Times article "New York Is Lagging as Seas and Risks Rise, Critics Warn," by Mireya Navarro reflects on how New York City is preparing for major and drastic climate change. This article was written back in September of 2012, which is when former Mayor Bloomberg was still in office. Some of the steps that his administration took include expanding saturated land to serve the need of rising tides, installing water proof roofs for rainwater, and urging home owners to move their boilers if they are located in a basement that is prone to flooding.

Many critics believe that New York is not addressing or preparing for an event of major flooding fast enough. If another storm like Hurricane Sandy hits New York City in the near future, it will impact the MTA, (which many people like myself depend on), wash out Wall Street, and possibly cause a great number of residents to evacuate. Douglas Hill who is an engineer with the Storm Surge Research Group at Stony Brook University suggests that NYC should be more concerned with protecting our city instead of trying to prepare for a flood. He advises that we build sea gates to block the high waters from coming into the city in the case of another serious storm like Sandy. However, many people are upset that government officials are more concerned with Lower Manhattan and neglecting the need for protection elsewhere like South Bronx and parts of Brooklyn, which are exposed to the waterfronts as well. Not only are these areas are exposed to flooding, but they are also exposed to chemical producing plants, sites that store oil, and garbage transfer stations. If these areas are not protected, they will produce a toxic, dangerous, and extremely harmful environment for its residents.

There are a little over 8 million people living in the city of New York. A very few number of them are aware of the climate change that is affected by the serious issue of global warming. There has been a significant rise in sea levels over the past few years and it is expected that these levels will be rising even more. This means that over time, a simple rain shower can present a huge threat to the city just as a hurricane can be today. Scary, huh?

"Apartmentzero", a reader from Buffalo, New York believes that if Mitt Romney would have been elected as President, he would have not taken steps to continue preparing the city for the high risk of serious flooding due to a storm. He suggests that Mitt Romney has agendas other than providing awareness to the serious global climate change that New York City is clearly unprepared for. Apartmentzero says that the money collected for studies and the building of sea gates for the city would "dry up".

Apartmentzero also suggests that some of the media is condoning the ignorance of climate change. These sources of media include the Fox News channel and the Wall Street Journal. He states that these sources "work against a rational understanding and approach to global warming." I think he bought this point up to try to prove that the government takes benefit in ensuring that the people of this country, (not just New York City), remain clueless and blind to the issue of global warming. Money can be spent elsewhere, (maybe a tea party, ((literally)) or something that they wouldn't have to spend so much money on).

He also applauds The New York Times for raising awareness to this issue. He is impressed by the knowledge and usage of science in the article as well as the positive steps being taken to prepare the Big Apple for the big worm that is yet to come. I think its awesome that there are people and sources out there that are trying to raise awareness of New Yorkers to the issue of global warming. Over the years, I have heard of global warming, but never really understood it. I understood some of the basic science behind it, but never actually thought about its consequences or how it could affect MY life. I'm glad that this is something I will be learning about in depth in my English class. I would definitely appreciate it if I came across more campaigns, newspapers, and media sources that raise awareness to the issue of global warming and helping people understand that this IS a major issue and it IS serious. We definitely should not underestimate the intensity of how serious this is. Many people will not be able to prepare for something so big on short notice, especially if its something they have no background knowledge of. This as Apartmentzero suggests, will result in "catastrophe."