Name: Harvey F. Mollison

Social Justice Group: Global Warming (A)

Date of Fieldwork: December 17, 2024

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Eliza Zygmuntowicz

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork:

Eliza thinks that New York will change a lot due to the climate change crisis. Furthermore, Eliza also believes that climate change will affect a lot of New Yorkers’ lives for several reasons. These reasons include flooding in areas around Jamacia Bay and lower Manhattan. However, she also mentions that many projects are going on to help combat climate change issues such as green infrastructure, and how that can really help the entire environment.

She mentions the heat island effect and the thinking that depending on the amount of tree cover in a certain area, affects the temperature and living conditions of the inhabitants. She furthers this point by saying that these areas are almost always more low-income areas and that that is something to look into. She then again uses the example of Jamacia Bay to compare that level of income there, to areas that are much less flood-prone. She then mentions the east-river park rising to accommodate sea level rise.

When we asked her if she was making a difference in the climate change crisis, she replied that she does things like composting and using energy-efficient cars. However, she also mentions that although she makes her efforts, only her is not enough and it is more important to make sure that the people that we are electing into office are more trustowthy on this issue.