Many of our immediate responses to Hurricane Sandy were successful . Scientists accurately forecast the storm ; authorities ordered the proper actions ; many people heeded the orders ; and there was a massive government response in the aftermath . What went most wrong , and continues to go wrong , is our handling of environmental risks in the long term . Even when the present has delivered an unprecedented shock , we still have trouble accepting that the future will bring new ones , unlike those before . It will . Sandy was forecast with remarkable precision . Some models saw the storm coming more than a week ahead of time . Five days before it made landfall , the National Hurricane Center predicted the rest of the storm 's track confidently , and almost perfectly . Forecasts this accurate are the result of decades of research and development , much of it done by government-funded scientists and engineers . Their remarkable achievement should not be taken for granted . Many aspects of the immediate government response to Sandy were also successful . Having learned from his predecessor 's failure with Katrina in 2005 , President Obama took Sandy seriously from the outset . A battered community , an unexpected angel . The Federal Emergency Management Administration had people and assets in place early , and mobilized reinforcements quickly after the storm to bring help to those in need . There were many successes at the local level as well . New York 's Metropolitan Transportation Authority did a remarkable job restoring subway service so quickly . Our real problems are long-term . Our infrastructure is not prepared for the climate we 've had in the past , let alone the one we 'll have in the future . It was clear for years that the New York City subways were dangerously vulnerable to hurricane flooding . Waterproofing was never undertaken . It was considered too expensive a response to a problem that would arrive at an unspecified future time . One of the storm 's most expensive casualties was the new , half-billion dollar station at South Ferry , built in the flood zone . This is not to single out the MTA . Similar examples line our coastline -- houses and businesses built on the beach and in coastal wetlands , power lines vulnerable to trees that come down even in tropical storm-force winds . The consequences of poor planning will become all the more serious as climate warms and sea level rises . CNN iReport : Photographer revisits Sandy 's path . New York City is actually a world leader in urban environmentalism . Mayor Bloomberg and PlaNYC 's post-Sandy `` Proposal for a Stronger , More Resilient New York '' may be the most serious proposal by any city yet to become more climate-ready . I hope that it survives the end of Bloomberg 's term , and that we find the funds and political will to implement it , or something like it . But political and economic pressures discourage long-term investment . This is more true at the federal level than the local , and becomes still more frightening when we consider the most large-scale and long-term problem : human-induced global warming itself . Floods like Sandy 's will become more common as sea level rises . Rain-driven floods like those in Colorado a few weeks ago will also happen more often , as warmer air holds more water vapor . Less dramatic , but perhaps ultimately more harmful , the coolest summers in a hundred years will be hotter than even the hottest summers that have occurred in our lifetimes . This has still not sunk in . It is outside our experience , and hard to grasp . But we know these things will happen . This , too , is a confident forecast . The changes are already under way , results of human greenhouse gas emissions , and consistent with the predictions of climate scientists decades ago . Reducing greenhouse gas emissions takes long-term vision . It also takes faith in science . Science , at its heart , is just the practice of taking reality seriously . Under Obama , the United States has taken some modest measures . But we need to do much more . So far , the long-term costs of inaction have not been taken as seriously as the short-term costs of action . Most disturbing , the primary tactic of those opposed to action has not been to argue about the real costs and benefits , but to pretend that reality is not what it is . We human beings are all a little shortsighted by nature , but there is no excuse for willful ignorance , or for conscious , intellectually dishonest denial . When science delivers a threatening forecast , action is the only responsible course . Our leaders have shown great capacity to act upon a forecast for a Superstorm in a few days ' time . We need to convince them to take the climate change forecast equally seriously .
Adam Sobel : The short-term responses to Hurricane Sandy were successful . Forecasts were very accurate , FEMA and MTA responded effectively , he says . Sobel says the one failure was that it has n't prompted sufficient concern about climate change . Threat of storms , flooding will increase ; cities need to prepare now , Sobel says .