China’s State Oceanic Administration (SAO) announced on Thursday through a new report that sea levels off Shanghai and other Chinese coastal cities are rising at alarming levels. A prime example for the report pinpointed a rise of 196mm (7.72 inches) over the past three decades for the port city of Tianjin, 60 miles southeast of Beijing.
The SAO report, created by administration experts, shows that a combination of global climate change and the sinking of coast land due to the pumping of ground water were the two main causes for the rising water levels.
“Sea level rises worldwide cannot be reversed, so Chinese city officials and planners must take measures to adapt to the change,” said Chen Manchun, an administration researcher with the SAO.
Stepping away from global climate change for a minute leaves us with a problem that many nations, I believe, will be facing. Fresh water is often drawn from underneath the table levels (geological, not Ikeacal) and thus create a problem of sinking, or subsidence. For non-coastal cities, this will obviously not be a problem. But for those who do live near the coast, this will only exacerbate the already growing situation.
Surface subsidence is described by SAO researcher Chen Manchun as the “indiscriminate exploitation of groundwater resource.”
But in a day and age where the entire world is focused on the environmental, one would naturally assume that the journalistic integrity of reporters focusing on such stories would be priority. However as the AP prove, this just doesn’t seem to be the case.
This might seem like a total tangent from the Chinese rising sea levels, but I am focusing on a particular sentence that the AP writer deemed necessary for his or her story. The author naturally, and rightly so, focuses on the fact that the rising sea levels across the entire planet threaten many low lying island groups.
However the author goes on to add a sentence that is the focus of many anti-global warming advocates;
“Some scientists have warned that melting of the vast glaciers of Greenland could cause a 13-foot rise in sea levels in coming centuries.”
First of all; yes, this is true. Secondly; is this likely to happen anytime soon?
It is scare tactics like this that undermine those of us who attempt to present real associated evidence to back up a point. There is absolutely no need to bring such a hotly contested point as the melting of Greenland in to an issue that is not hypothetical at all, and definitely not being dealt with in terms of ‘centuries.’
One need only look at the Chinese Government’s official website to look at what needs to be said; emphasis on needs. They focus on examples that the report gives such as the waters around Shanghai rising by 115mm, “…or the length of half a chopstick.”
And according to the report, the sea levels have risen overall, by a height of 90mm. They put this in comparison to the global sea levels which rose at a rate of 1.7mm every year between 1975 and 2007, while theirs rose 2.5mm every year in the same period.
Journalists who do not understand the discussion and heated commentary being expressed in the environmental community and across the internet (just look at our comments) seemingly do nothing for the cause than to harm it. Why not focus on the actual steps being taken in China – such as the three-degree risk rating system that is being set up by the SAO to help inform coastal cities of the risks they are facing – rather than the hypothetical possibilities of a planet away?
Most important of all, I would suggest, is the safety of Shanghai’s drinking water, a topic that the AP article did touch on (I’ve moved on from my rant). With an enormous population of 20 million residents, the intruding water is infiltrating the freshwater that feeds the city.
All in all, the effects of global warming are being felt well away from areas of ice and glaciers. A reporter should not need to focus on the most controversial or publicized in order to make a story work. The simple fact is that global warming is creating an untenable problem in rising seawaters, and there is very little we will be able to do about it.
AP via MSNBC – China warns its coastal cities of rising seas
Photo Courtesy of Poagao via Flickr
About Joshua S Hill
