CLIMATE CHANGE: Is Your Home At Risk?

Old Astoria is a waterfront community. Because of this we should all be aware of the potential risks that climate change and rising sea levels provide.

A new Google Earth plug-in allows users to explore how rising sea levels would affect their neighborhoods and the tool shows that large swaths of Queens would be completely flooded.

Surging Seas:Extreme Scenario 2100 was created by Climate Central, an organization of scientists and journalists who report on the impact of climate change. The plugin uses data from a report by the National and Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which estimates that sea levels across the United States could rise by eight feet by 2100.

Awareness of an issue, actually seeing graphically how you and your family can be personally affected, can be the first step to creating lifestyle changes. We trust that the changes shown are not inevitable, but something that can be mitigated by responsible management of our resources.

We also know that the NYC Department of City Planning has flood zone resiliency issues on their front burner.

Please take the time to think what you can personally do to protect what we have all worked so hard to secure.

Photos via Climate Central

Richard Khuzami

Mr. Khuzami has been a member of Community Board 1 in Astoria, NY for the last 20 years. He sits on the Zoning and parks Committees and is on the Executive Board. Previously, he served as Parks and Culture chair of Community Board 1 for eleven years and also chaired Capital and Expense priority Committee. He is a member of the Queens General Assembly and had been a panelist for grant submissions for the Queens Council on the Arts (QCA). Richard also is an officer of The Eastern Mediterranean Business Culture Alliance (EMBCA) and President of OANA.