In a new video, Vox Media explores what places like the Meadowlands will be like as sea level rise continues to accelerate.

Throughout the video, scientists and environmental experts (including our own Vice President of Energy & Environment Rob Freudenberg) share how sea level rise could, within a matter decades, leave critical infrastructure including train lines and power plants, as well as homes throughout our region underwater.

In our Fourth Regional Plan, we recommend preserving the Meadowlands as a national park that will grow as the climate continues to change.

“The Meadowlands is one of the biggest sponges in our region,” Freudenberg says. ​“If we get rid of those wetlands or if we pave them over, we’re going to be pushing water into other places.”

Another one of our reports, ​“Coastal Adaptation: A Framework for Governance and Funding to Address Climate Change”, highlights how sea level rise will not only impact our region’s airports and shipping ports, but it will increase the average annual economic loss from storms to $7.3 billion.

“It’s very hard to find any community that’s looking at sea-level rise as a threat that they’re planning for today,” says Rob Freudenberg. ​“Even if this is something that is 20 years away or so, the decisions we make today last into those 20 years and beyond, and we need to be doing more to prepare for those.”

Click here to watch the video in its entirety.