Peril and Promise: The Challenge of Climate Change

Peril and Promise

Peril and Promise: The Challenge of Climate Change is a national reporting initiative of The WNET Group. This special WLIW-FM half-hour program focuses on the unique challenges and choices confronting eastern Long Island. The program is hosted by veteran journalist and Planet Forward creator, Frank Sesno. Together with a panel of experts and local officials, he explores the effects climate change is already having on eastern Long Island, what communities are doing about it now, the challenges ahead, and what citizens can do to engage and take action.

The qualities that make eastern Long Island a distinctive and beautiful place make the stakes of climate change especially high. The consequences are already being felt: sea level rise and coastal erosion, warming waters and endangered marine life, more frequent downpours and flooding, pine beetles that flourish in warmer temperatures and are now common here.

Panelists include local officials who are experts on the issues and have deep roots in this region: Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, and Alison Branco, Director of Coastal Programs for The Nature Conservancy in New York.

For additional information about climate change and what communities are doing about it on eastern Long Island, and to see how you can get involved, here are some useful resources:

Suffolk County Energy and Climate Action

East Hampton Climate Action Plan

Concerned Citizens of Montauk Coastal Resiliency

Climate Central Surging Seas Risk Finder

The Riverhead Local: Suffolk County Task Force on Sea Level Rise and Coastal Erosion

This WLIW-FM special program is distributed in part by Peril and Promise, a public media initiative from PBS flagship station WNET in New York, reporting on the human stories of climate change and its solutions. You can learn more at pbs.org/perilandpromise and on the WLIW-FM website at wliw.org/radio. Major funding for Peril and Promise is provided by Dr. P. Roy and Diana T. Vagelos with additional funding from The Marc Haas Foundation, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, and the Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family.