NJ is impacted by sea level rise more than many other places in the country and even the world. We also have seen some of the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases in the country. Working together though, we now have some of the lowest numbers of cases. We can work together to become one of the best places in the country to prepare for and address sea level rise and extreme storms. To do so, as with COVID, it will take a strong state and regional effort.

As part of a “Community Coming Together COVID-19 Virtual Meeting,” Dr. Rachel Cleetus, from the Union of Concerned Scientists, joined us to walk residents  through the juxtaposition of COVID and climate change, the impacts, the responses, and what remains to be done.

The 2020 hurricane season offers us a portrait of larger, fiercer, more frequent storms, as warming ocean waters fuel even greater tempests, battering the Gulf Coast or the Eastern seaboard, and farther inland as well. The damage to property and lives lost collides with the economic devastation from the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses closed and millions unemployed, with many threatened with eviction and foreclosure, as well as the immense loss of life in the US, almost 200,000 dead as we write this. This is government resources and society at large under huge strain.

Learn more as Dr. Cleetus explores the science, the politics, the problems and solutions as we face the twin devastations of COVID and Climate Change.   

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