Tibbets ‘daylighting’ pushed in wake of Ida
A tow truck clears a car abandoned on the Major Deegan Expressway
after the remnants of Hurricane Ida on Sept. 2, 2021.
Photo REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, S BTR EPT. 9-16, 2021 13
letters & comments
Photo Chip Somodevilla Getty Images
To the Editor,
In another display of psychological
projection last
week, the theme of the hardright
columnist was the left’s
“refusal to acknowledge hard
facts,” while in the real world
we have right-wingers who
refuse to accept Trump ‘s
election loss. He falsely depicted
isolated incidents at
protests as if they were the
norm, calling the demonstrators
“hordes of violent criminals.”
Meanwhile, a horde
of violent in.....surrectionist
Trump supporters, howling
for the head of Mike Pence
are given a pass. This propaganda
technique is known as
“card stacking,” when selective
information is used to
create an incomplete and inaccurate
narrative to infl uence
people.
The 1619 Project is denounced
for alleged historical
inaccuracies, yet no evidence
of these imaginary faults is
offered. Oh, and by the way,
the author won the 2020 Pulitzer
Prize for Commentary,
the most prestigious honor
in journalism. You see the
1619 Project does not align
with the mythical origin
story favored by the right, so
it must be incorrect. The column’s
frontman then accuses
those who disagree with his
stunted world view of resorting
to ad hominem attacks,
that is, denigrating the person
rather than the stance the
individual supports, which is
a regular feature of his column.
Look in the mirror, sir.
Finally, Trump is lauded
for “exposing” the “rejection
of facts” of left-leaning politicians,
despite his championing
of “alternative facts,” a
euphemism for lies. The author
wonders how “this descent
towards demagoguery”
came about. Was he in a fouryear
coma during the Trump
administration?
Pasqual Pelosi
LET US HEAR FROM YOU
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BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
Hurricane Ida swept
through New York City last
week and signaled a climate
weather event that fl ooded
major throughways and underground
subway stations,
and led to the deaths of at least
50 people in the Northeast region.
Fifteen-year-old Emma Buretta
estimated that climatic
disasters like Ida — once seen
as a rarity in the Northeast
— will happen a dozen more
times over the course of her
lifespan if systemic and political
action is not taken to address
climate change.
“The damage caused by
weather events like Hurricane
Ida are going to only be
more commonplace and more
frequent over the next few
years,” said Burretta, New
York City coordinator for Fridays
for Future USA, movement
of students striking for
climate justice. “And without
any political policies in place,
the impact and recovery will
get worse with each climate
event.”
Environmentalists and climatologists
have been ringing
alarm bells about the unpredictable
cycle of climate
change, rising fl ood patterns,
and perilous global warming
of the planet long before Ida’s
Sept. 1 rainfall.
In August, a report by the
United Nations’ Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) painted an especially
grim outlook.
The result of human activity
has caused the global
surface temperatures to rise
faster than in any other 50-
year period over the past 2,000
years, meaning a “code red for
humanity,” according to the
United Nations report.
After a summer that included
turbocharged storms,
wildfi res, hurricanes and
coastal fl oods, 1 out of every 3
Americans has been affected
by climate change, according
to an analysis of federal disaster
declarations.
Summers like this are only
expected to be more unpredictable
and severe, according
to climatologists. Hurricane
Ida — the sixth-costliest tropical
cyclone on record — has
led to national and local calls
for effective political action.
White House senior adviser
Cedric Richmond said
in a media appearance that
in wake of Ida’s effect in the
Southern and Northeastern
sections of the nation, Congress
needs to approve pending
infrastructure legislation
and the administration’s $3.5
trillion mega-spending bill.
“These once-in-a-century
storms are starting to come
almost every other year,” he
said on ABC’s “This Week.“
“They’re bigger, stronger.
They wreak more havoc. If
you look at New York, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania, people
should see what climate
change is doing. We’re going
to address that in our legislation.
On a local level, in the
Bronx, groups like the Bronx
Council for Environmental
Quality (BCEQ) are imploring
local leaders to accelerate
projects to daylight the
Tibbetts Brook, an effort that
would redirect overfl ow water
from Van Cortlandt Lake and
mitigate the major fl ooding
that Ida caused to Bronx parkways
and roadways like the
Major Deegan Expressway.
“Decades of overbuilding
and disinvestment in the
Bronx have made the Major
Deegan Expressway an
international symbol of urban
failure to meet the planning
changes demanded by
climate change,” Dr. Robert
Fanuzzi, president of BCEQ,
said. “These changes should
not be conditioned on the next
weather forecast but should
have happened yesterday.”
The BCEQ calls for a green
fl oodplain to absorb stormwater;
low impact development
to manage runoff, and
for the next 30 years, the daylighting
of Tibbetts Brook,
which fl ows four miles from
the city of Yonkers down to
its vanishing point in Van
Cortlandt Lake. The process
called “daylighting,” is when
buried rivers are uncovered
and routed above ground.
“How much longer do we
have to wait before the city
adopts the natural solutions
that can prevent further calamity,”
asked Fanuzzi.
Tibbetts Brook routes
all of its freshwater into the
New York City sewer system,
sending up to fi ve million
gallons a day into an overloaded
processing plant on
Wards Island.
According to the BCEQ,
this water fl ow has helped
to increase fl ooding in the
neighborhoods south of Van
Cortlandt Park, where businesses
and streets are severely
affected. Ida led to an
overfl ooding of Van Courtlandt
Lake’s edge which led to
massive pooling at the lower
part of Van Cortlandt Park.
According to the BCEQ, water
from the storm routed
along the Old Putnam Rail
Trail and lead to fl ooding as
far as West 225th Street.
Ida rainfall also overwhelmed
the wall of the Major
Deegan Expressway,
closing I-87 and disrupting
commuting Bronxites for
days.
A central tenant for modern
environmentalist movements
is a focus on environmental
racism, addressing
how communities of color —
in the United States, Black
and Indigenous communities
in particular — face greater
harms through increasing
climate events.
Burrett said that on Sept.
24, a climate strike will be
held at Foley Square in Manhattan
at 3 p.m. The hope is
that in the wake of Ida, more
New Yorkers will use their
voice to demand politicians
act on climate change.
“One of our major themes
is #UprootTheSystem and
putting attention to how communities
of color will be facing
the harshest and severest
effect of climate change,”
said Burretta. “The tragedy
in that is that it has taken
people losing their lives for
many to see how dire the
need for climate change policies
in America.”
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