New satellite-based research has revealed that tracts of land along the East Coast — including in major cities like Boston, New York, and Miami — are sinking, making residents even more susceptible to rising sea levels.
What happened?
A new study has revealed that a number of U.S. East Coast cities are sinking a centimeter or more each decade, and a "major culprit" is the overpumping of groundwater, which is used for drinking, irrigating, and industry, as the New York Times explains.
Per the news outlet, once water is removed from underground aquifers, soil can compress and collapse, causing the land surface to sink.
The issue is affecting cities up and down the coast, from Miami to Portland, Maine. For instance, some parts of New York City and Long Island are sinking more than 3.0 centimeters per decade, while Charleston, South Carolina, has been dropping by up to 5.7 centimeters in that time, per the Times.
Why is sinking land concerning?
Though a few millimeters of sinking land per year may not seem like a lot, it can have disastrous consequences, especially when compounded with sea level rise, the Times notes. These relatively small changes can lead to storm surges with the power to wash away soil from beneath roads or floods that can fill basements and block emergency routes.
"That's the thing about sea level [rise]. It's slow and it's insidious and continuous," Dr. Kenneth Miller, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Rutgers University who was not an author of the study, told the Times.
Plus, sinking land only worsens woes for the roughly 40% of Americans who live in coastal communities. Already, they face a slew of climate-driven weather threats like high-tide flooding and hurricanes, which are occurring more frequently and regularly as an overheating planet supercharges these natural phenomena.
What's being done about sinking land and sea level rise?
The federal government is jumping in to help states better prepare.
For instance, Maryland, which could see another 4 feet of sea level rise by 2100, per the University of Maryland Extension, will receive $107 million to improve the climate resilience of its transportation systems, according to the Times. Coastal communities are also set to receive $2.6 billion over five years to prepare and respond to climate hazards, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act.
Plus, multiple companies are also trying to get ahead of rising seas by offering solutions like floating homes and office buildings.
Other people are taking matters into their own hands. One group of homeowners in Massachusetts paid more than half a million dollars to construct a giant sand dune to protect their beach-front properties from dangerous tides and prevent coastal erosion.
Join our free newsletter for cool news and cool tips that make it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.
Cool Picks
