Trained as a Mathematician and Oceanographer, Adler taught physics at the City College of New York and oceanography at SUNY Maritime and Long Island University. He contributed to several scholarly publications in his field in the 1960s and 1970s, but his environmental advocacy work began in earnest after the 1973 publication of his first book, Ecological Fantasies - Death From Falling Watermelons: A Defense of Innovation, Science, and Rational Approaches to Environmental Problems,^[5] which had grown out of a series of somewhat contentious debates on environmental policy published in Science and The Village Voice in May and November 1972.^[6][7] By the late-1970s Adler's articles on shoreline issues had appeared in The Village Voice, as well as other local papers including The New York Times and Newsday. His science-based letters and articles appeared in the American Journal of Physics (January 1958), Undersea Technology (August 1968), Journal of Ocean Technology V.2 No.1 (1967), Science and Technology (October 1969), Wall Street Journal (February 1971), Marine Engineering Log (March 1971), American Fish Farmer (August 1972), Science (November 1972), etc.

In early December, 1982, Adler placed an ad in the Voice announcing a public walk along the Hudson River from Battery Park to Riverside Park, which at the time consisted largely of docking facilities abandoned due to Containerization. The walk, which served to raise awareness of the disused and inaccessible shoreline, became an annual event, and came to become known as The Great Saunter, eventually constituting a complete shoreline circumnavigation of the island of Manhattan. This walk developed into a non-profit group, Shorewalkers. Established in 1982 the organization was incorporated in 1984. Cy A was president of Shorewalkers until October 2017, when he resigned to devote more time to his civic, literary and municipal projects.

In 1984 Adler wrote an article published in The New York Times, advocating a public shoreline path from the river's mouth at Battery Park to the river's source, Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondack Mountains.^[14] Adler's book, Walking The Hudson, Batt to Bear (From the Battery to Bear Mountain) detailed the route, as of 1997, as far as Bear Mountain (Hudson Highlands). A second edition, published by W. W. Norton & Company updated the route for 2012. The book contains an introduction by folksinger Pete Seeger, a member of Shorewalkers and friend of Adler.^[15][16]

Adler organized several New York State corporations. In 1972, he organized and was CEO of Offshore Sea Development Corp. He and his associates developed systems for offloading oil tankers and bi-valve aquaculture techniques. He earned several patents, including one for a Single-Point Mooring, U. S. patent number 3.756.293.

Under various pseudonyms, Adler wrote and produced several other works. One of these was "Wholly Mother Jones," a play with music about the extraordinary labor organizer, Mary Harris Jones. It has been produced at least three times at the Brecht Forum and the People's Voice Cafe. Another book was "The Queer Dutchman - Castaway on Ascension," which went through two editions at Greeneagle Press. He also wrote "Crazy to go to Sea," a memoir of his time working in the Norwegian Merchant Marine in the 1950s.

With Pete Seeger, Adler wrote lyrics to several songs, including "Hurrah, Hurray for the NRA," a song related to gun violence, and the Shorewalkers Saunter song. He also developed the album, "No Job, No Bread? Sing a Jolly Song!"

His humanist cantata The Turtles Mass^[17] premiered on Earth Day, 22 April 2018.

References