Sea levels that are rising twice as fast as expected mean Shanghai could soon become “Xiahai” if a solution is not foundAn Associated Press article released Monday says the threat to the mainland’s commercial capital is more imminent than previously expected – along with London, Miami, New York and other major metropolise
Shanghai’s future depends on finding ways to prevent he same waters that made it a major international port from reclaiming it.
Global warming is melting glaciers and polar ice sheets, and raising sea levels worldwide, leaving tens of millions of people in coastal areas and on low-lying islands vulnerable to flooding and other weather-related catastrophes.
Shanghai, with an altitude roughly 3 meters above sea level, is among dozens of great world cities – including London, Miami, New Yok, New Orleans, Mumbai, Cairo, Amsterdam and Tokyo – threatened by waters that now are rising twice as fast as projected just a few years ago. Estimates of the scale and timing vary, but Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate-change expert at Germany’s Potsdam Institute, expects a 1-meter rise in sea levels within the century and up to 5 meters over the next 300 years.Chinese cities are among the most threatened. Their huge populations – the angtze River Delta region alone has about 80 million people – and their rapid growth into giant industrial, financial and shipping centers could mean massive losses from rising sea levels, experts say.The sea is steadily advancing on Shanghai, tainting its freshwater supplies as it turns coastal land and groundwater salty, slowing drainage of the area’s heavily polluted flood basin and eating away at the precious delta soils that for its foundation.
