It no longer matters whether you believe global warming is caused by man, or "just God hugging us closer." Because Chicken Little was right, Shanghai is sinking.
Reuters reports that Shanghai is considered among the world's most vulnerable urban areas to a rise in sea levels, all thanks to melting polar ice caps, the prevalent use of land subsistence in China's coastal cities and heavy construction of skyscrapers.
According to Wang Pingxian, professor of ocean geology at Tongji University in Shanghai:
Its location on a low-lying alluvial plain near the mouth of Asia's longest river, the Yangtze, had already left it prone, ... Sinking ground levels have long been a headache for Shanghai, although the culprit has traditionally been the pumping of ground water to support its rapid growth and industrialization."(Land subsidence) is more serious in areas where groundwater is heavily used, or highrise density is high," said Xu Shiyuan, a professor of geology at East China Normal University.
While the city moves to stop the ground from being pulled down as ground water is sucked out, researchers now worry that the ground is being pushed down as masses of skyscrapers are plopped down across the urban landscape.
There are about 10,000 buildings with more than 10 floors in Shanghai, of which 80 percent have been built in the past 10 years, according to Emporis, one of the world's leading providers of building information.
Get that sinking feeling when you're strolling along the Bund? The dyke along Shanghai's riverfront Bund, which protects a mile of historic granite buildings from the Huangpu River, has been raised three times — by nearly 2 meters (about 7 feet) — over the past four decades. Since Shanghai first drilled a deep well in the Bund in 1860, ground water has forced the city to sink at an average of 4 centimetres a year.
Clearly in this case, "drill, baby, drill" isn't going to solve the problem.
Photo by w1ll14m09
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glad you got "drill,baby,drill" right
you did it at least better than Biden
However,what's the relevance here?the quote made you appear informed and smart?
come on,the Greens
even John McCain supports "cap and trade"
McCain's cap and trade is flawed, he would actually give away a % of the allowances for free...this makes no sense. He also supports 100% of required emission reductions to be achieved through offsets; i.e. if you got the money just buy your way out of emission reductions...bs...
:'(
So we'll have sea walls. It will be awesome!
Buck, that would be a long wall. Have you seen those websites where you punch in the number of metres of sea level rise to see what would be under water? Seven metres would put all of Shanghai (not just the city area) and a large corner of Jiangxi under water. As for Tianjin... well lets just say that Beijing will become a coastal city. But think how surreal Shanghai will look. It will go from being the "Paris of the Orient" to being the "Venice of the Orient".
For the present as well as future generations, we have a compelling need to reduce the weight of greenhouse gases. There are many people with the means to invest in carbon sinks in order to reduce atmospheric concentrations of CO2. This makes it possible to achieve the essential effort of becoming carbon positive.
The U.S. generates for almost 1/4 of the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, to present, federal restrictions have not yet been placed on GHG emissions. There have been initiatives introduced for embryonic carbon trading markets. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is an obligatory system for reducing carbon emissions from U.S. power plants in the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maine, Connecticut, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Caps will go in effect in 2009 and emissions trading will be a key component of the structure.
In California, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 mandates the creation of a multi-industry structure to reduce GHG emissions in California to 1990 levels by 2020. It appears that emissions trading will be a component of the system that may be linked with the European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS). In January 2005, the EU ETS commenced operation as the largest multi nation, multi-industry greenhouse gas emission trading system in the world.
The global warming problem is discussed fully at http://www.onebiosphere.com/ and the environmental forum is found at http://www.onebiosphere.com/forum/
In the U.S., which lacks a binding federal carbon trading system, the private Chicago Climate Exchange that is owned by Climate Exchange plc is attempting to create a voluntary carbon exchange for North American and Brazil by utilizing independent verification to allow institutions and individuals to trade carbon reduction credits.
For the present as well as future generations, we have a compelling need to reduce the weight of greenhouse gases. There are many people with the means to invest in carbon sinks in order to reduce atmospheric concentrations of CO2. This makes it possible to achieve the essential effort of becoming carbon positive.
The U.S. generates for almost 1/4 of the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, to present, federal restrictions have not yet been placed on GHG emissions. There have been initiatives introduced for embryonic carbon trading markets. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is an obligatory system for reducing carbon emissions from U.S. power plants in the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maine, Connecticut, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Caps will go in effect in 2009 and emissions trading will be a key component of the structure.
In California, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 mandates the creation of a multi-industry structure to reduce GHG emissions in California to 1990 levels by 2020. It appears that emissions trading will be a component of the system that may be linked with the European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS). In January 2005, the EU ETS commenced operation as the largest multi nation, multi-industry greenhouse gas emission trading system in the world.
The global warming problem is discussed fully at http://www.onebiosphere.com/ and the environmental forum is found at http://www.onebiosphere.com/forum/
In the U.S., which lacks a binding federal carbon trading system, the private Chicago Climate Exchange that is owned by Climate Exchange plc is attempting to create a voluntary carbon exchange for North American and Brazil by utilizing independent verification to allow institutions and individuals to trade carbon reduction credits.