It is important to understand weather to understand how sudden rain increases flooding risks, how high tide affects flooding, how storms out in the ocean can increase flooding, how wind passing over long stretches of water or "fetch" grows waves that can  hammer the shoreline.

The AQI tracks pollution that leads to climate change that affects weather AND that causes health issues. 

The Red Hook community, with the support of Consumer Reports and The Guardian, began tracking air pollution during the pandemic because multiple last mile facilities were built here during that time, and those lead to a huge surge in trucks and delivery vehicles, which leads to more air pollution in an EJ neighborhood.  See Consumer Reports/Guardian articles here and here.

The air monitoring effort is also being used to address the issue of the largely non-working shorepower at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in our neighborhood. Our Councilmember Alexa Avilés partnered with Councilmember Erik Bottcher of Hells Kitchen Manhattan (where there is a huge cruise terminal) to write Intro 1050 demanding that any cruise ships that come to NYC must use shorepower and that the NYC EDC must create a traffic plan for the vehicle traffic caused by the ships. A press conference about Intro 1050 was held in Red Hook on 9/18/23.