By the year 2040, New York City and Long Island could lose over 80,000 homes to flooding, according to Averting Crisis, a new report released on Monday by the nonprofit Regional Plan Association (RPA).

The report said that in every NYC borough, it was likely that tracts of land would become impossible to develop, contributing to the area’s housing shortage, which could reach 1.2 million homes.

“Communities nationwide are facing a severe housing crisis marked by soaring costs, limited housing options, and stagnant construction. This crisis is largely driven by restrictive zoning regulations that impose onerous procedural requirements, ban multi-family housing, and create numerous technical hurdles,” the report said. “Unfortunately, climate hazards, especially flooding, will continue to exacerbate the housing shortage. The growing risk of climate-driven flooding jeopardizes both existing and future housing developed in flood zones.”

The New York City area has seen a shortage of homes over the last few decades, which has contributed to higher rents and home prices, reported The New York Times. Meanwhile, the city has been finding it hard to adapt to the increase in flooding and extreme weather due to global heating.

“The sooner we decide as a city to invest in resilience measures to help neighborhoods adapt — whether it’s to fortify or to move — the faster we avert leaving an even bigger crisis for the next generation,” said Amy Chester, managing director of nonprofit Rebuild by Design, as The New York Times reported.

In the New York, Connecticut and New Jersey tri-state area, almost one million multifamily buildings and houses have a high risk of flooding, according to the report.

By 2050, the number of at-risk affordable housing units in coastal areas is projected to triple. As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, extreme weather events — made worse by sea-level rise — will continue to become more frequent, severe and damaging.

“Over time, zoning has been implemented to favor sprawl while limiting compact development. As a result, our current zoning exacerbates both our housing and climate crises. The same zoning regulations that constrain compact housing development are subjecting residents to increasing and more severe climate hazards,” the report said.

In the report, RPA offered insights into zoning reform and necessary policies to address the twin climate adaptation and housing needs of the study area, which included New York City and the suburban areas of Suffolk, Nassau and Westchester Counties.

Of the 82,000 residences that could be destroyed by 2040, more than half were predicted to be on Long Island.

“Of the many climate hazards threatening the study area, flood risks may have the most impact, as approximately 77,300 acres of residential-zoned land (10.5%) could face future flooding, and by the year 2040, up to 82,000 housing units could be lost due to permanent, chronic, and coastal flooding,” the report said. “In many municipalities in Westchester and especially Long Island, locally controlled zoning often restricts residential development in locations with good transportation access, job opportunities, and limited flood exposure. Despite being close to New York City, suburbs on Long Island and in Westchester County ban multifamily development on over 95% of their residential land.”

In the city, waterfront neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, such as Canarsie and the Rockaways, would experience the most flooding losses.

Some new developments in Queens’ Rockaway Peninsula — home to approximately 125,000 residents — have been trying to safeguard people against flooding while providing dense, affordable housing.

A system of engineered berms in the Rockaways with steel and stone walls at their centers will help protect the peninsula’s ocean-facing side. There hasn’t been much progress on the bay side, however, which floods on a regular basis.

Other mitigation measures in New York City that are in various stages of completion include floodgates and walls on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, as well as bluebelts connecting storm sewers to ponds and lakes.

The report said the area already needs 362,000 more homes to relieve overcrowding, provide housing for those in shelters and address low vacancy rates. An additional 895,000 units could be needed by 2040 to address flooding losses, household formation changes and dilapidation.

Towns and cities should cluster their growth in regional areas with a relatively lower flood risk that are close to commercial hubs and public transportation, according to the report.

Max Besbris, a University of Wisconsin-Madison sociology professor, said the threat of global heating means local officials need to “rethink what a conventional home looks like.”

“That means denser housing, more energy-efficient housing, and that probably means giving up on that suburban ideal of a stand-alone home with a white picket fence,” Besbris said, as reported by The New York Times.

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Indonesia is planning to clear a forested area roughly the size of Belgium in order to make way for the production of sugarcane-derived bioethanol and food crops such as rice.

The move threatens to displace Indigenous groups who are reliant on the land for survival.

“Instead of clearing forests, the government should focus on optimising existing agricultural land, respecting indigenous rights, and implementing genuine agrarian reform,” said the Clean Coalition of environmental NGOs in a statement, as AFP reported.

Activists are concerned that the proposal will lead to more forests being cleared to make way for oil palm plantations. Palm oil is the country’s top export commodity and a key driver of deforestation in the archipelago.

“The plan to open 20 million hectares of land significantly increases the risk of palm oil expansion,” said Achmad Surambo, executive director of Sawit Watch, as reported by AFP.

Local communities have said they are already being harmed by the plan, which environmental watchdog groups say is the largest planned deforestation project in the world, The Associated Press reported.

Indonesia is home to many endangered and unique wildlife and plant species like orangutans, elephants, the Sumatran tiger, Sunda clouded leopards, sun bears, the Javan rhinoceros and giant forest flowers.

For decades, the country has been constructing massive food estates meant to bolster food security, with varying success. Former President Joko Widodo revived the concept during his decade-long administration, which ended last year.

Prabowo Subianto, the current president, has expanded the projects to include bioethanol crops such as corn and sugarcane, as part of Indonesia’s plan to develop more renewable energy sources and improve the country’s energy mix.

“I am confident that within four to five years at the latest, we will achieve food self-sufficiency,” Prabowo said in a speech last October. “We must be self-sufficient in energy and we have the capacity to achieve this.”

Although the International Energy Agency has said that biofuels like bioethanol have an important role in the decarbonization of transportation, the agency also warned that biofuel expansion should be developed sustainability so that it has a minimal impact on environmental factors such as land use and food production.

“Imagine every piece of vegetation in that area being completely cleared… having all the trees and the wildlife erased from the landscape and replaced with a monoculture,” said CEO of Mighty Earth Glenn Horowitz, as reported by The Associated Press. “It’s creating a zone of death in one of the most vibrant spots on Earth.”

Subianto’s brother Hashim Djojohadikusumo, the country’s energy and environment envoy, said 16 million acres of deforested and degraded land will be reforested by the government. However, experts caution that the ecological benefits of reforestation, while important, cannot compare with those of old-growth forest ecosystems, which support biodiversity, regulate water cycles and store enormous amounts of carbon in biomass and soils.

“The so-called food and energy sovereignty President Prabowo Subianto envisions will remain empty rhetoric if it relies on massive deforestation. This plan would worsen the climate crisis, triggering cascading impacts across sectors. Converting 20 million hectares of forest for industrial use will increase carbon emissions, fuel fires, and produce hazardous haze, especially if carried out in peat landscapes. Ultimately, this will derail the government’s climate commitments and efforts to safeguard biodiversity,” said Iqbal Damanik, Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner, in a press release from Greenpeace.

Vincen Kwipalo, a 63-year-old villager in Papua, said the area where he and others in the community once hunted has been converted into sugarcane nurseries that are watched over by guards, preventing them from their normal subsistence activities.

“We know the forests of Papua are one of the biggest lungs of the world, yet we are destroying it,” Kwipalo said, as The Associated Press reported. “Indonesia should be proud to protect Papua… not destroy it.”

Environmental watchdogs say the development will impact Indigenous groups for generations.

“Where are they going to hunt, fish and live?” Horowitz said. “For an Indigenous community that’s relied on the rainforest to provide for centuries, are they supposed to live in a sugar plantation?”

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https://www.ecowatch.com/indonesia-deforestation-bioethanol-agriculture.html

Millions of people in all 50 states and across the world participated in 1,400 Hands Off! protests on Saturday against the actions and policies of President Donald Trump and senior advisor Elon Musk.

At state capitals, federal buildings, congressional offices, city halls, parks and Social Security’s headquarters, people gathered by the thousands to demand a stop to what Hands Off! called a “billionaire power grab,” reported CNN.

“We are facing a national crisis. Our democracy, our livelihoods, and our rights are all on the line as Trump and Musk execute their illegal takeover,” Hands Off said on its website. “This is not just corruption. This is not just mismanagement. This is a hostile takeover.”

Almost 600,000 people were said to have signed up to attend the Hands Off! events, which were held in major cities like Paris, London and New York, as well as smaller cities and towns — from Asheville, North Carolina, to Frankfort, Kentucky.

Indivisible led the movement alongside a nationwide coalition of civil rights organizations, women’s rights groups, LGBTQ+ advocates, veterans and labor unions.

The three demands put forth by the Hands Off! organizers are “an end to the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration; an end to slashing federal funds for Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs working people rely on; and an end to the attacks on immigrants, trans people, and other communities.”

Those demonstrating showed their support of national parks, public education, abortion rights, health care for veterans, small business, fair elections and many other causes. They were there to march against oligarchs, fascism, the deportation of immigrants, dark money and the Department of Government Efficiency, The New York Times reported.

“Pouring rain, 43 degrees, biting wind, and people are still here in Albany in the thousands,” said comic book writer Ron Marz, who posted a crowd photo from the New York State Capitol on X.

Saturday’s protest on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue stretched for almost 20 blocks. Tens of thousands engulfed the Washington Monument, thousands flooded Chicago’s Daley Plaza and, in Atlanta, more than 20,000 marched to the statehouse, according to a police estimate.

Meanwhile, Trump was in Florida playing golf, appearing to largely ignore the outcries against his administration.

Veteran Trump protesters in Denver said there was a smaller Latino presence at this weekend’s demonstration than at those during Trump’s first term.

“You notice there’s not a lot of Chicano people out here? It’s because people are scared,” said 49-year-old Brian Loma, an environmental organizer who had set up a tent to sell hot chocolate, as reported by The New York Times.

Loma said it seemed like the government was “ripping up green cards. It’s crazy.”

At the New York City protest, former special education teacher Melissa Jackson said, “New York, the United States, is the melting pot. Like, what do we want? Like, not diversity, not inclusion?”

Jackson added that she was concerned about the government’s cuts to public education.

“We’ve come too far to take so many steps back,” she said.

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