Rolling Up Our Sleeves

Now is the time to roll up our sleeves, before we have to roll up our cuffs and pump out our basements warns Nancy Anderson's latest Torchlight column. Posted on the Sallan Foundation website on August 31, 2007, it finds some silver linings in the wet weather that may preview New York's coming climate change.

The summer storm that wreaked havoc on the NYC subway system was not the first case of extreme weather that stops this city, literally, in its tracks. And climate change experts warn us that it won't be the last.

The first take away message from this soggy saga is that investments in a range of new transportation and communication technologies are needed, and needed quickly, if New York is to withstand a world of rising sea levels and fiercer storms. The second message is that what we pay for has to work as promised.

Acting on these messages will entail input of enough funding for the smart research and development that will link to the output of the 21st Century goods, gadgets and services. We should foster the education and training needed to manufacture the goods and deliver services for operating essential municipal systems able to withstand a more climate-hostile world. At the same time, from an economic development policy perspective, we need to know if local businesses are achieving the green gains that cost-conscious and climate-oriented markets expect.

Nancy Anderson's latest Torchlight column finds some silver linings in the wet weather that may preview New York's coming climate change.

Link to the full column from the Sallan Foundation. http://www.sallan.org/newviews/archives/torchlight/index.php

About the Sallan Foundation: The Sallan Foundation improves the urban environment by advancing useful knowledge for greener, high performance cities.