A fresh breeze is sweeping away climate-change hysteria.<\/p>\n
The UN International Panel on Climate Change, often cited to support cataclysmic forecasts, recently admitted its extreme scenarios are highly implausible<\/a>.<\/p>\n The walkback followed last year\u2019s peer-reviewed Dutch research study in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, which found no measurable acceleration in global sea-level rises.<\/a><\/p>\n But these retreats came too late to prevent or even slow the scandalous ongoing destruction of Manhattan\u2019s Battery Park City Esplanade<\/a> and John V. Lindsay East River Park.<\/p>\n Both epic acts of civic vandalism were authorized in the name of protecting\u00a0New York from an imaginary \u201c100-year flood.\u201d<\/p>\n The schemes are part of the $2 billion, state-sponsored East Coast Resiliency project<\/a> along a 3.5-mile waterfront stretch wrapping from the East River to the Hudson.<\/p>\n And while a coalition of downtown civic groups and residents recently filed a new lawsuit aiming to block it, public authorities have steamrolled over previous legal challenges.<\/p>\n Mayor Zohran Mandani on Monday trumpeted the completion of a small part of the project \u2014 the elevation of a waterfront promenade at the Battery.<\/p>\n The area is \u201con the front lines of the climate crisis,\u201d he lectured.<\/p>\n \u201cWith phase one now complete, we are taking a major step toward safeguarding Lower Manhattan . . . from rising seas and stronger storms.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite Mamdani\u2019s blather, the walkway this week remains a confusing jumble of barricades and\u00a0security checkpoints.<\/p>\n And whatever work was done there is puny compared with what\u2019s in store at Battery Park City and the East River park.<\/p>\n Yet growing skepticism about the climate zealots\u2019 dire warnings may not be enough to stave off future atrocities promoted by their hysterical echo chamber \u2014 and by the designers, engineers, construction companies and \u201cconsultants\u201d who batten on the lucrative boondoggles.<\/p>\n Both Manhattan projects bury\u00a0underground flood-barrier walls beneath new, undulating topography that\u2019s inimical to casual use.<\/p>\n Walkways and lawns that once served as a front porch to our picturesque waterways were lifted ten feet; mature shade trees, art installations, public seating and athletic areas have been torn out.<\/p>\n At Le District\u2019s alfresco Battery Park caf\u00e9, customers who previously enjoyed views of the river and the New Jersey skyline now face a chain-link fence and roaring excavation machines.<\/p>\n Battery Park City\u2019s beloved Hudson River Esplanade, a treasure of Lower Manhattan, will be closed for years to come as it\u2019s needlessly reconfigured.<\/p>\n Its off-limits condition shocks those who loved its airy refuge from the city\u2019s thrum \u2014 and appalls nearby residents of this once magnificent neighborhood.<\/p>\n The ruination started at little Wagner Park at Battery Park City\u2019s south end.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n The widely praised, 3.5-acre green oasis was sliced and diced into awkward\u00a0segments with none of its former charm \u2014 all for a mere $300 million.<\/p>\n Few people today enjoy sitting on the shadeless, bleachers-like steps that replaced Wagner\u2019s original flat meadow, once a \u00a0paradise for sunbathers and sightseers.<\/p>\n But, oh joy! \u2014 we now have an \u201cintegrated flood barrier system,\u201d \u201cflip-up deployables\u201d and \u201clush gardens planted with native, salt-resistant species.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s the more infuriating given that Superstorm Sandy in 2012 did no damage to Wagner Park at all, despite the harbor\u2019s highest sea-level rise ever recorded.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the southern portion of the miles-long, 46-acre John V. Lindsay East River Park, which stretches from Montgomery Street north of the Manhattan Bridge to East 12th Street, has been warped in accord with climate mandates.<\/p>\n The park\u2019s northern part and the Battery Park Esplanade are soon to follow.<\/p>\n They\u2019re being replaced by elevated recreation areas stripped of the simple pleasures that drew millions of users.<\/p>\n In the now \u201cresilient\u201d segment south of the Williamsburg Bridge, scores of old trees have given way to saplings that might throw shade in a mere 25 years.<\/p>\n The mostly level recreation lawns that were favorite gathering grounds for residents of nearby NYCHA housing projects have sprouted hilly, segmented zones mostly too small for easy use.<\/p>\n Impromptu cookouts on the open grass are now discouraged in favor of a concrete-paved \u201cbarbecue area\u201d that saw no grills firing on recent BBQ-perfect afternoons.<\/p>\n Nowhere is the stupidity more infuriating than at a derelict former fireboat house near the foot of Grand Street.<\/p>\n There, design geniuses inexplicably installed a concrete, five-level curved seating area, reminiscent of Mussolini-era architecture in Rome, which faces nothing but the building\u2019s blank rear wall.<\/p>\n