New York City fights against climate change in the Trump era

The plot seen above is a record of changing sea levels in the tidal estuary and harbour of New York City. Note the steady rise through the last century.

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The fight against climate change: four cities leading the way in the Trump era:
New York City, Houston, Miami and San Francisco have all taken steps to mitigate the risks associated with rising sea levels and global temperatures. Are their successes a blueprint for action at the state and local level?
by Oliver Milman in New York, Joe Eskenazi in San Francisco, Richard Luscombein Miami, and Tom Dart in Houston
The Guardian 

Wholly unintentionally, Donald Trump may have sparked unprecedented determination within the US to confront the danger of climate change.

Following Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord, the president was assailed by businesses ranging from Facebook to Goldman Sachs for risking America’s economic and environmental standing. The White House was choked by phone calls from irate voters.

Perhaps most significantly, a coalition of lawmakers, companies and universities swung into action in an attempt to reassure the world that the US wasn’t completely abandoning the field.
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Within this group committing itself to the Paris targets are 17 governors – two of them Republicans – and 125 cities, including New York City, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh, which was cited, somewhat mistakenly, by Trump as somewhere that would benefit from exiting the Paris agreement.

With the federal government casting off the task of emissions reduction, the onus is now on cities and states to make up the shortfall. We look at what four major US cities – New York City, Houston, Miami and San Francisco – are doing to stave off the threat of climate change.

Continue reading at The Guardian