A recently published NASA-led study revealed that sea levels aren't just rising in California — parts of the land are also sinking, Maven's Notebook reported. These phenomena pose a looming public health and safety threat to coastal city residents in the state, as well as in major cities across the world where land sinking is occurring.
What's happening?
Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have extensively mapped the topography of land throughout California, using satellite radar to identify rising and sinking throughout the land.
The researchers learned that the San Francisco Bay Area (specifically San Rafael, Corte Madera, Foster City, and Bay Farm Island) is "subsiding at a steady rate of more than 0.4 inches (10 millimeters) per year due largely to sediment compaction," per Maven's Notebook.
A major culprit of land sinking is the overpumping of groundwater, used for drinking and irrigation, according to the New York Times.
Accounting for the rate of land sinking at the lowest points in the Bay Area, the scientists projected that "local sea levels could rise more than 17 inches by 2050," according to Maven's Notebook.
"The land is moving down faster than the sea itself is going up," the study lead author, Marin Govorcin, said, per Maven's Notebook.
In some areas, notably the Santa Barbara groundwater basin and Long Beach, California, researchers observed an uplift. These elevated areas respectively coincide with a replenishing water basin and oil and gas production that leads to deformation or lifting of the ground surface.
Why are sinking cities important?
Land sinking puts coastal cities at risk of increased flooding as we experience rising sea levels caused by melting glaciers and ice sheets, which is a direct consequence of rising global temperatures.
Large-scale human activities, such as burning dirty fuels for energy, have polluted the atmosphere with harmful gases that prevent solar heat from escaping, effectively warming the planet and causing sea levels to rise.
A combination of these various changing conditions has caused extreme weather events, like heavy rain, flooding, heatwaves, and more, that endanger communities and could eventually displace them.
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Yes — always 💯 While extreme weather events have always occurred in nature, they are occurring more frequently and more forcefully due to human activities.
What can I do to help?
Land sinking, rising sea levels, and rising global temperatures may seem like lost causes that we cannot interfere with. Nothing is further from the truth.
Land sinking tends to occur with excessive pumping of groundwater. Knowing this, cities must reduce groundwater extraction and find alternative methods, like rainwater harvesting, to sustainably source water. Or, cities must find a plan to offset the water extracted from the ground.
On an individual level, you can be a part of the climate solution by learning about climate issues that contribute to rising global temperatures and rising sea levels and how to take action.
For example, driving an electric car instead of a gas-powered car reduces gas pollution, which keeps the air clear from planet-warming gases. Switching to solar, a sustainable and clean energy source, also reduces the amount of fossil fuels needed to power your home.
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