Shanghai May Slip Under The Sea (Global Warming)

IOL ^ | 2-6-2004

[blam]

Shanghai may slip under the sea

February 06 2004 at 06:09AM

Shanghai - Rising sea levels due to global warming mean the gleaming skyscrapers of China's financial hub Shanghai could be entirely submerged in 600 years, a state newspaper said on Friday.

Academics worry that Shanghai, which state media report sank as much as 2.63m between 1921 and 1965 due to the overpumping of underground water, may descend further under the weight of a construction frenzy of the past decade.

The sea had risen 20mm since 2000 and should keep climbing over the next decade, the Shanghai Daily said, citing a report from the State Ocean Administration.

"Shanghai and a number of other coastal cities have been drawing heavily on groundwater for a couple of decades, depleting it and causing (the cities) to sink," said one US-based researcher.

Excessive construction of tall buildings was to blame for 30 percent of Shanghai's subsidence since 1990, Xinhua said, when the city embarked on a whirlwind of construction that has dotted its skyline with often bizarre, futuristic towers.

Lujiazui, the financial district where Japan's Mori Building Co is erecting a 101-storey skyscraper that could be the world's tallest, is sinking 12 to 15 millimetres a year, Xinhua said.

The area is home to the country's main stock exchange and a host of multinationals that have chosen to make Shanghai the focus of a push into the Chinese market. The city government is now considering limiting the number of high rises.

"This is apparently not a serious enough problem to stop the building of the world's tallest building," said one locally based foreign diplomat.

[blam]

Global warming ping.

[Tax-chick]

Do you think 600 years will be enough time for them to organize an evacuation, or will they all be sitting their office towers as the waves wash over the roofs?

[VadeRetro]

Pumping out underground water while increasng the weight of surface structures is not global warming.

[Dan Cooper]

How can they even measure a sea level rise of twenty millimeters? That seems like it would be well under the "noise" margin. Perhaps the Dutch will give them a good price for Shanghai.

[Gefreiter]

And in however many billion years, the Sun's nuclear fuel will run out, causing it to explode and engulf all the inner planets, including the Earth.

Any day now the far left will blame Bush for that too.

[Tax-chick]

Is 6 billion years enough time to organize an evacuation, or will they all still be sitting there when the sun explodes?

[blam]

"Pumping out underground water while increasng the weight of surface structures is not global warming."

I know, that's why I put the word 'Global Warming' in bold in the first paragraph. The same thing is happening to Houston, Texas...subsidence. The federal government has already bought out some neighborhoods that have sunk there.

[BadAndy]

They could slowly start building dikes. Just building them up 10 mm/yr should keep them ahead of the problem.

[whereasandsoforth]

I'm not sure I'd feel safe in a six hundred year old skyscraper.

[finnman69]

Parts of Venice have been periodically underwater for centuries now.

So what.

[Natural Law]

If is does sink in to the ocean that filthy sh*t-hole will leave a ring around the world!

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[Wonder Warthog]

"I know, that's why I put the word 'Global Warming' in bold in the first paragraph. The same thing is happening to Houston, Texas...subsidence. The federal government has already bought out some neighborhoods that have sunk there."

Why??? All of New Orleans is now below mean sea level. Hasn't stopped the city. There is this little-known invention made by the Dutch a few hundred years back, called "dikes" (note--NOT female homosexuals who think they're men)--also called "levees" in Louisiana.

[Eala]

the gleaming skyscrapers of China's financial hub Shanghai could be entirely submerged in 600 years

Shanghai ... sank as much as 2.63m between 1921 and 1965

The sea had risen 20mm since 2000 and should keep climbing over the next decade

Rule #1: Always run the numbers.

Lessee, 2.63m in 44 years. 2.63 x 600 / 44 = 36 m.
20 mm in 4 years. 20e-3 x 600 / 4 = 3 m.
Linear projected subsidence relative to sea level over 600 years = 39 m, or about 125 feet.

Man, are those ever some tall skyscrapers!

[finnman69]

Actually, with proper exterior maintenance the life of a modern skyscraper is practically indefinitie.

[Diddle E. Squat]

The headline writer could have done better:

"Soliloquist Scientist Says Shining Shanghai May Slowly and Silently Slip Under the Shimmering Sea"

Now say it ten times as fast as you can...

[Gefreiter]

Oh, they'll still be sitting there, because according to the Left, exploration of space is bad until things are "right" on Earth; see the Patrick Stewart/Picard thread from a few days ago.

The republicans and reasonable moderates will be somewhere safe.

[cinFLA]

Global warming ping.

Interesting. The entire article talks about the land sinking due to the building load and water removal.

[Agnes Heep]

Reminds me of what Moe once said to Curly: "For two cents I'd knock your brains out ... if you had brains."