Most New Yorkers don’t have a backyard, though, especially in the more densely populated neighborhoods. Physical space is so scarce, it’s imperative to make use of the little space that is available to us. And it turns out there’s a lot of space if you just look up.

Movement and structure. I didn’t realize how important these two words were until they recently began to shift.

From Hurricane Sandy to flooding in Miami, climate change already poses existential threats to our homes. It fuels the spread of mosquito-borne diseases and exacerbates violent conflicts, threatening our health and our lives. Climate change is a danger as personal as it is global, and it has hurt so many of us. I came to Climate and Society because by friends are beginning to lose hope, and I needed to find a way to keep that hope alive.

These areas can be publicly or privately owned, which often affects public accessibility. The Nature Conservancy’s New York City Program is working on putting together a cohesive data set of open space and land ownership in the city in order to assess which entities the Conservancy must work with to promote increased public access to open space.