Many people have seen viral videos showing water pouring through New York City’s subway tunnels, or been warned to visit Venice before it goes completely underwater. But another city in Colombia faces a similar fate.
What is happening?
Over the past 20 years, sea levels on the beaches of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, have risen at a rate of seven millimeters per year. According to El Pais.
Cartagena is affected by melting ice caps and rising global temperatures, but its uniqueness stems from its geology and a process called subsidence.
Falling is normal. For example, in Cartagena, volcanic gas vents erupt, causing cracks in the ground that can literally sink the city.
“It’s nature, and there’s nothing we can do about it,” said marine biologist Juan Dario Restrepo. Country.
But it is often also caused by human behavior, e.g. As NOAA explains“The removal of water, oil, natural gas, or mineral resources from the ground by pumping, fracking, or mining activities.”
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How important is sea level rise in Cartagena?
Cartagena faces a harsh future. Colombia 1 reported The researchers found that “the coastal city of Cartagena de Indias could be submerged by the Caribbean Sea by the end of the century.”
When the decline is coupled with rising global temperatures, the speed at which water levels will rise doubles.
As extreme weather events continue to become more frequent and intense, their impacts are becoming more widespread. Property damage is greater and can cost billions. Public health is at risk – in addition to facing potentially dangerous flooding and waterborne germs, the team at I discovered the Yale School of Public Health “Floods have also been associated with an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and mental disorders.”
What is being done about sea level rise and fall?
“Humans can’t stop the Earth’s subsidence, but we hope it will,” Florida International University geophysics professor Shimon Wodwinski said of Cartagena. [research] “It encourages people to play a role in slowing the rate of sea level rise by… reducing carbon emissions.” According to Phys.org.
Other global cities, such as Shanghai, San Francisco, and even Manhattan, where skyscrapers contribute, are sinking under their own weight, and experts have made similar calls for change.
Cartagena placed rocks to create physical barriers against rising water levels. But this solution is controversial and not permanent.
According to Country“They can remove as many rocks as they want, and within four or five years the water will come back up,” Restrepo said. “This is a way to silence communities… that opposed the impact of these dredging operations.”
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