Some large cities on the shores of the seas and oceans go under water four times faster than the rest of the land. This is stated in an article published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, authored by scientists from China, France, Germany and the UK, reports Bloomberg.
The economic center of Indonesia, more than ten million Jakarta, sinks at a rate of 7.8-9.9 millimeters per year, although the world average is 2.5 millimeters. The country’s authorities are forced to move the capital to a higher area on the island of Borneo, because the city is literally sinking.
The reason for this situation was the extraction of groundwater from shallow wells. The cavities formed underground lead to soil subsidence. In the event of floods and storms, the risk of destruction increases.
Among other major cities in the world, which are in danger, China’s Shanghai, and American New Orleans. The authors of the study believe that while it is already very difficult to save Jakarta, the process can be stopped in other cities by changing the rules for using groundwater.
Lead researcher Robert Nicholls notes that if the authorities in other coastal cities ignore the warning, then in the near future, many more megacities will face the threat of flooding.
Earlier, scientists found out that mining bitcoins takes more energy than entire countries. For example, in the past year, the amount of energy used to create cryptocurrency has reached a level equivalent to Argentina’s annual carbon footprint. At the same time, the further, the more complex the mining algorithm becomes, which means more energy is consumed.