Exhibit Explores How Rising Sea Levels Threaten NYC & Beyond
10 photos
New York from the marshes around the Hackensack River in New Jersey, 2018
With houses built right on the coastline at Breezy Point, the Rockaways were hit hard by Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and are still vulnerable nine years later.
On January 8, 2019, the Netherlands was struck by a heavy storm coupled with a spring tide. The island of Terschelling was hit hard and the quays and harbor of West Terschelling flooded. While this has happened before, such events are starting to take place much more frequently. Western Terschelling is not protected and future sea level rise will endanger the low-lying areas.
Norberto and Olga Hernandez live on Sucunguadup, one of 36 inhabited islands in Guna Yala. Rising water means the Gunas will need move to the mainland. Evacuation, scheduled to begin in 2012, has not yet started.
Pelican Island, between the barrier islands of Fire Island and Smith Point
A mother and her daughter in their former village of Bainpara, Bangladesh. Some houses remain but most were swallowed by Cyclone Alia in May 2009. After the water receded, it never returned to its old levels. In the district of Dakop, 60,000 people are still displaced, nearly the entire population.