‘Water mining’ prime culprit in rising sea levels
October 11th, 2010 - 4:59 pm ICT by IANSLondon, Oct 11 (IANS) Global warming is not the only villain in raising sea levels. Much of the swelling seas come from “water mining”, the pumping of vast amounts of groundwater from beneath the earth, mainly to irrigate crops.
This inevitably ends up in the oceans after it evaporates from farmlands and comes down as rain, reports the Telegraph.
The study reckons that this accounts for about a quarter of global sea-level rise, as much as the melting ice from all the glaciers outside Greenland and Antarctica, according to the journal Geophysics Research Letters.
Besides, increased pumping of underground water threatens food supplies. These reservoirs are shrinking by more than 280 cubic km a day, well over twice as much as in 1960. Nature cannot replenish them as fast.
The vast Ogallala aquifer, which underlies eight US states, helping to grow food on which 100 countries rely, is sinking by three feet a year.
How much of that is replenished by rainfall percolation? Only a mere inch.
- Pumping groundwater may cause rise in sea level: Study - May 09, 2012
- Vast groundwater reserves detected in Sahara - Apr 22, 2012
- Melting ice in Canadian Arctic bigger player in sea-level rise - Apr 22, 2011
- Secret to northern India's vanishing water unlocked by scientists - Aug 13, 2009
- Melting glaciers on Arctic islands play major role in rise of sea level - Apr 21, 2011
- Melting glaciers to contribute 12cm to world sea-level increases by 2100 - Jan 11, 2011
- Groundwater depletion rate more than doubled in recent decades: Study - Sep 24, 2010
- US satellites unlock secret to north India's vanishing water - Aug 14, 2009
- Global warming curbs won't prevent steep sea rise - Mar 21, 2012
- Melting ice sheets largest contributor to sea level rise - Mar 10, 2011
- US scientists find northern India's water is vanishing - Aug 13, 2009
- Warming ocean layers melt polar ice sheets faster - Jul 04, 2011
- Water supplies may run out by 2030 - Jan 11, 2012
- Strong currents accelerate Antarctic ice melt - Jun 27, 2011
- Greenland ice loss responsible for a sixth of sea-level rise - Nov 22, 2009
Tags: farmlands, food supplies, geophysics research, glaciers, global sea level, global warming, groundwater, melting ice, oct 11, ogallala aquifer, prime culprit, rain reports, rainfall, research letters, reservoirs, rising sea levels, sea level rise, three feet, underground water, villain