In this New York Times front-page Sunday Review article, opinion writer James Atlas frets about climate change destroying New York City. Atlas comes to the correct conclusion about pointless fretting (i.e., enjoy what you have while you have it) but also (inadvertently) debunks the notion of manmade climate change as a cause.
Contemplating our ephemerality can be a profound experience. To wander the once magnificent Roman cities strung along the Lycian coast of Turkey — now largely reduced to rubble, much still unexcavated — is to realize how extensive, how magisterial this civilization was. Whole cities are underwater; you can snorkel over them and read inscriptions carved into ancient monoliths. Ephesus, pop. 300,000 in the second century A.D., is a vast necropolis. The amphitheater that accommodated nearly 25,000 people sits empty. The Temple of Artemis, said to have been four times larger than the Parthenon, is a handful of slender columns. [Emphasis added]
As there were no SUVs or coal-fired power plants causing the Lycian coast to submerge, why would 21st century New York City inhabitants think that Mother Nature would be inclined to treat the Atlantic coast any differently? [New York Times]