The Burdens of the Abandoned

Who knows what combination of bureaucratic numbness, political payback or climate-change denialism drove the decision by the Army Corps of Engineers to defund its years-long study of how to defend the metropolitan region from the higher seas and stronger storms expected to come with global warming? Motives aside, the move is a shocking instance of government negligence in the face of undeniable risks to the country's biggest population cluster and financial heart.

That said, President Trump's crude skepticism about the options the Corps was considering did overlap with nuanced misgivings that some local advocates expressed about the wisdom of building a harbor-wide sea wall from Sandy Hook, N.J., to Breezy Point in Queens. There were concerns that the wall would have adverse affects on the health of local marine life and the communities closest to the infrastructure. There was also the worry that the expense of building such a wall would sap government's ability to deal with other threats climate change will elevate, like extreme heat.

However, the big sea-wall was just one of the options the Corps was considering. Other, more local measures on the table offered smaller price-tags, faster timelines and fewer environmental side effects.

It's possible the funding will be restored this year—or next year if control of the White House and Senate shift to people who accept the scientific consensus and lack some pathological dislike for New York City. And it's possible that the Corps will then quickly move to a more modest, nimble plan.

But the delay will have a cost. Already, decisive local action to improve resiliency has been put off as we wait to figure out what the feds are going to do. So have decisions on whether retreat is going to be necessary in some areas.

As with public housing and guns and so many other issues, New York City is going to have to chart its own course for surviving climate change while agitating for the federal government to do its duty. Hopefully the people running for mayor in 2021 will start offering cogent plans for how to do so—something better than mops and buckets.

- Jarrett Murphy, executive editor

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