Global warming may be Al Gore’s gig, but it played a major role yesterday in the mayor’s speech on the future of the city.
While Hizzoner said he wasn’t about to pass up a 50-degree day in December, the mayor warned that higher temperatures pose serious risks for a coastal city such as New York.
“The increase of greenhouse gases in our air is not only lifting temperatures, it may also be contributing to our rising sea level,” he said.
“That means when major storms hit in the future, the resulting flooding could be worse than anything we’ve seen.”
Bloomberg’s view was backed by Cynthia Rosenzweig, a research scientist at Columbia University who said a change of a single degree in average temperatures could have far-reaching effects.
From 1950 to today, officials said, the average summer temperature here has increased from about 68 to 70.