Ignoring Climate Change

A Crisis Foretold: Studies Warned New York Infrastructure Critically Threatened by Climate Change The massive damage Superstorm Sandy has caused to New York City and its infrastructure has not come as a surprise to everyone. We're joined by Cynthia Rosenzweig, co-chair of the New York City Panel on Climate Change, who says the city began looking at the impact of global warming more than a decade ago. She is the lead author of a 2011 report on the impact climate change will have in New York state's "critical structure" like bridges and sewage systems, as well as public health and agriculture. A senior research scientist at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies where she heads the Climate Impacts Group, Rosenzweig's work with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Task Force on Data was recognized in 2007 with the Nobel Peace Prize awarded jointly to Al Gore and to the IPCC Task Force. Watch/Listen/Read

Without Power and Aid, Low-Income Residents of NYC's Lower East Side Struggle in Storm's Aftermath We speak with residents of the low-income and largely minority community of Manhattan's Lower East Side who live in the shadow of a Consolidated Edison substation that flooded during Superstorm Sandy and has left thousands in the dark. With no sign of help from the city or the Federal Emergency Management Agency, residents talk to Democracy Now! producer Renée Feltz about the storm's impact on their lives. Many are struggling to carry water up darkened stairwells in buckets filled up at fire hydrants, while others are assisting bedridden elderly parents who live in the Jacob Riis public housing units. Everyone is asking when their power will be restored. Watch/Listen/Read

David Rohde: Superstorm Sandy Has Exposed New York City's "Hideous Inequality" We continue our coverage of Superstorm Sandy by looking at how it has impacted an economically divided New York City, especially in Manhattan, where the the richest fifth make 40 times more money than the poorest fifth. Inequality in Manhattan rivals parts of sub-Saharan Africa. We're joined in New York City by Reuters journalist David Rohde, whose new article for The Atlantic is "The Hideous Inequality Exposed by Hurricane Sandy." Rohde is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a former reporter for the New York Times. Watch/Listen/Read