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Rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities
- effnorwood 5y agoMy gosh! Someone tell Obama!
- cookingmyserver 5y agoIs the ground water near a coast line brackish?
- nemo 5y agoOn the Florida and Texas coasts the groundwater is brackish, and with the increasing sea levels from AGW, that salinity is intruding further and further inland.
- mythrwy 5y agoBut sea levels haven't increased very much in either of those places (yet). Certainly not enough to be responsible for the observed effect. What happens is the freshwater aquifers are drained giving the salt/brackish water space to intrude.
- nemo 5y agoDraining aquifers and lower levels of rainfall in FL are definitely also contributing (as are things like the Turkey Point plant near Miami) but the moderate sea level increases in FL and parts of the Gulf coast are also having an effect on rising salinity in aquifers. Increased storm surges and sea level rises have driven salinity further inland. So you're right that are also other factors, but one root cause is the effect of rising sea levels. Consider what's happening in Miami carefully. https://cnsmaryland.org/2020/11/23/salt-levels-in-floridas-groundwater-rising-at-alarming-rates-nuke-plant-is-one-cause/ https://cnsmaryland.org/2020/11/23/salt-levels-in-floridas-g...
- hoffspot 5y agoDepends on many factors but brackish groudwater does exist near coastlines either naturally or via intrusion from human over pumping. Example of the latter from LA: https://www.wrd.org/content/regional-brackish-water-reclamation-program https://www.wrd.org/content/regional-brackish-water-reclamat...
- dwater 5y agoYes, and it's an increasing problem for coastal communities. https://www.miamidade.gov/global/water/conservation/saltwater-intrusion.page https://www.miamidade.gov/global/water/conservation/saltwate...
- TheOtherHobbes 5y agoClimate change is going to cause a lot of increasing problems. Brackish groundwater, loss of drinking water, fires, flash floods in areas that have never experienced them or been designed to cope with them, large scale flooding, loss of farmland, loss of commercial areas including ports and transport hubs, tornadoes, hurricanes, and larger and more damaging storms - generally creeping loss of habitable infrastructure, and increasing damage to supply chains. Anyone who thinks owning a property somehow insulates them from change is going to be in for nasty surprises.
- shadowgovt 5y agoIf anything, owning a property ties one to the fate of a geographic location, and the oncoming climate change means the function and utility of lots of geography will change rapidly.
- mikey_p 5y agoYes, I know there are parts of Orange County that have water injection wells that pump water into the ground along the coast to keep fresh water in the aquifer to prevent it filling with brackish water. Some googling around shows it might be called the Talbert Seawater Intrusion Barrier.
- CameronNemo 5y agoI remember touring the sanitation plant when I was took an environmental science class in high school. They said they did fourth stage water treatment then injected the treated water into the aquifer. They are right near Talbert. It is going to be difficult to fight this tide. Also if you are Mike Posey please blink once.
- olivermarks 5y agoWho is 'thinknewsmedia' who wrote this 'could' article? The link to Vkontakte at base suggests the site is Russian?
- DennisP 5y agoThey have a source link at the bottom. It's MIT's Technology Review. Here's the full-text archive: https://archive.md/cpEXX https://archive.md/cpEXX
- olivermarks 5y agothanks! don't know how I missed that
- CapitalistCartr 5y agoThis version is freely available to read; the MIT one wasn't.
- q1w2 5y agoYou are right to be suspicious. While the original author of the article isn't from the site - it is very very interesting to see it propagated by Russian sources. Good catch.
- _Microft 5y agoSomeone submitted this a few posts earlier: "The Amazon is turning into savannah – we have 5 years to save it", https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29540946 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29540946 Two sides of the same coin but the groundwater problem seems easier to solve. Not because it is technically easier but because the incentives for (rich countries) seem to be a lot stronger. Preventing the own area from flooding is way less abstract than indirectly caused deforestation somewhere in the world, with effects that will be felt only years or decades into the future. Without wanting to highjack this submission (the Amazon submission didn't gain traction, unfortunately) but any ideas how this problem could be solved and how one could contribute to a solution?
- deltree7 5y agoCapitalism and Free Market. On an individual basis, apart from zero-cost sustainable habits, if you are capable, become a master of science, attempting to solve energy, material, carbon and climate issue at a physics level. If you are a craftsman, observe all the day-to-day activities of humans, tinker/hack and attempt to solve the same workflows more sustainably. If you have a solution either through hacks or science, you'll have unbelievable amount of capital coming to you to scale your solution. Capitalists will be tripping over themselves to hand you money. Here's what will 100% not work -- Activism or Trying to 'Policy' out of your way of Climate Change problems. Also, no government will ever fund your crazy little idea that has 0.0001% chance of succeeding with 10000x impact. Here's who may fund it -- your favorite evil Billionaire.
- nawgz 5y agoYes, Capitalism will surely solve the problem that Capitalism wrought, and using tools like Regulation and Policy is sure to hamper Capitalism and not help consumers or the environment at all! How sad it is that the comment suggesting we try to not continue overpopulating the globe is downvoted while this propaganda piece isn't.
- dgfitz 5y agoWe're not overpopulating it anymore. That "solution" presents its own problems. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53409521 https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53409521
- mensetmanusman 5y agoIt’s basically a foregone conclusion that the water levels will rise and envelop a large number of properties that exist due to the value of coastal real estate. Humans, because we are mostly water, love being close to water and seeing water. The question in my mind is whether we will get a waterworld type situation, or if everything will be left to be destroyed and we will re settle the new coasts.
- technothrasher 5y ago> Humans, because we are mostly water, love being close to water and seeing water. I've heard plenty of attempts to explain thalassophilia, but I have to admit I've never heard that one.
- colechristensen 5y agoThere isn't enough water for a "waterworld situation", the icecaps have been completely gone in the distant past and there were rainforests near the poles. There also won't be a singular event that will be over, coasts are going to slowly walk inland.
- outworlder 5y agoThere was dry land in Waterworld.
- wccrawford 5y agoThat most people thought was a myth.
- mensetmanusman 5y agoOh, aha, not waterworld over all the land, just floating houses within the mile of coast as it exists.
- an9n 5y ago[flagged]
- phicoh 5y agoThere is one thing I don't understand about the article. The rise in groundwater level should follow the average increase in sea level. It is not like a big wave would suddenly affect the groundwater level. Assuming houses last for 50 years and during the next 50 years the sealevel can increase by around 50cm, it should be easy to check if buildings near the coast are high enough that they can accept this change in sealevel. Of course, damage done by flooding does depend on how big waves are. So you need levees and seawalls long before you get a groundwater problem. That said, you don't want to pump fresh water out of the ground close to the sea (unless you inject at least as much fresh water). But that is independent of sealevel rising. Finally, plenty of Dutch houses are built in swamps below sealevel. The technology exists.
- iskander 5y agoI haven't read the article yet but one thing that makes more complicated in the US is the widespread use of septic tanks. The leach field will flood before the actual surface.
- q1w2 5y agoMost septic tanks are not in coastal properties. The water table isn't going to change for a property unless you're right on the water or living on wide low lying march/delta type areas.
- iskander 5y agoIn Florida and much of the Gulf Coast though... Check out this map of population density: https://vividmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/metropolitan-areas-population-density.gif https://vividmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/metropolita... All those dense spots in Florida and along the Gulf are also more likely than most US urban areas to use septic tanks. That's a lot of brackish poop, clogged toilets, and environmental contamination coming in the next few decades.
- q1w2 5y ago
- cronix 5y agoMeanwhile, other places are experiencing the exact opposite - wells running dry because the water table is continually dropping. https://www.opb.org/article/2021/07/29/southern-oregon-wells-dry-up-drought/ https://www.opb.org/article/2021/07/29/southern-oregon-wells... https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2017/10/16/running-dry-groundwater-levels-are-dropping-west-wide-including-in-the-east-mountains/ https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2017/10/16/running-dry-groundw...
- nberkman 5y agoRelated, this goes into far more detail: https://baynature.org/article/the-sea-beneath-us/ https://baynature.org/article/the-sea-beneath-us/
- iskander 5y ago>Water will leach inside homes, she said, through basement cracks. Toilets may become chronically backed up. Raw sewage may seep through manholes. Brackish water will corrode sewer and water pipes and inundate building foundations. And most hazardous of all, water percolating upward may flow through contaminants buried in the soil, spreading them underground and eventually releasing them into people’s homes. This describes my experience living in Miami. People are already acclimated to saltwater pouring out of drains during "king tides".
- tmnstr85 5y agoEither side of the coin, it's still pretty wild to watch it happen. We live on a point in Baltimore harbor and had the perfect storm of both water being pushed up the harbor, big tides and sheets of rain. By the time the tide came in the second time, we started seeing water pushing up through the sump pumps in our basements. The pressure from the water table underneath our home was so great that water was pushing it's way through the floors. This was the first time we've ever seen this happen down here, this is an area with significant history. I would not be surprised if this became common place in the future.
- ianhawes 5y agoThe entire Inner Harbor is within a floodplain, with the southernmost areas being within the 100yr FP. What you are describing is not unheard of, but simply not common.
- tamaharbor 5y agoDon’t buy or build in a floodplain?
- bryanrasmussen 5y agoWe'll solve that build problem with time machines!
- hihihihi1234 5y agoSounds like you should move before it's too late.
- bch 5y agoBritish Columbia has just experienced substantial flooding that wasn’t related to being coastal[0][1][2]. I think it exemplifies how we need to mind our relationship with the world - everywhere. [0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-floods-sumas-prairie-before-after-images-1.6258803 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-floods-su... [1] https://youtu.be/c-zANcnwY34 https://youtu.be/c-zANcnwY34 [2] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/merritt-residents-returning-1.6258088 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/merritt-resi...
- refurb 5y agoThat flooding was the refilling of a previously drained lake.
- markdown 5y agoIn the western Pacific a week ago: https://twitter.com/LorenzoRaplili/status/1467782221448679424 https://twitter.com/LorenzoRaplili/status/146778222144867942... https://www.abc.net.au/tok-pisin/2021-12-07/king-tide-png/13666668 https://www.abc.net.au/tok-pisin/2021-12-07/king-tide-png/13... https://www.looppng.com/png-news/tides-continue-nip-107547 https://www.looppng.com/png-news/tides-continue-nip-107547 https://postcourier.com.pg/king-tides-wreak-havoc-on-islands-in-manus-and-esp/ https://postcourier.com.pg/king-tides-wreak-havoc-on-islands...
- r721 5y agoOriginal article: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/12/13/1041309/climate-change-rising-groundwater-flooding/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/12/13/1041309/climate-... (unpaywalled: https://archive.today/DNSkT https://archive.today/DNSkT)
- twoquestions 5y agoWhat I'm really worried about is the people who think this kind of damage is good per se, either out of general misanthropy or some sort of tribal hatred. Meeting these kind of challenges are well within our technical capability, but I fear not within our moral/financial/political capability.
- dkdk8283 5y agoClimate is changing. Time to move.