China has already sunk more than 3m, making it a 'great crisis'...Hundreds of millions of lives are threatened [Y-Pick]

A huge wave comes in and the manhole lid keeps throwing up water.

There was no typhoon and no heavy rain, but in an instant, the whole place became a sea of water.

In addition to the moon's manpower, high tide floods occurred in the aftermath of frequent autumn typhoons.

The strange thing is that the damage is too great to be just a natural phenomenon.

Recently, a study found that rapid ground subsidence is underway in nearly half of China's major cities.

There are 270 million people living in this subsiding land.

Coastal cities were particularly dangerous.

In fact, in June 2023, an apartment complex in Tianjin was forced to evacuate due to the ground being turned off and the building tilted.

an accelerating subsidence

Excessive groundwater use and urbanization are cited as the cause.

China is slowly sinking because of the reckless development of humans.

China has undergone rapid urbanization since the 20th century.

In 2022, the city achieved an urbanization rate of more than 65%, and Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin, the three direct-controlled cities, have grown to the level of advanced countries, exceeding 85%.

However, behind the brilliant development, there are also dark shadows.

High buildings are unable to withstand the weight of dense cities, and soil compression is accelerating.The empty space caused by excessive extraction of

groundwater has collapsed, causing ground subsidence everywhere.

Repeated loads and vibrations of urban traffic are also cited as the cause of the subsidence.

According to a recent paper published in the international journal Science, 45% of 82 cities with a population of more than 2 million people are sinking at a rate faster than 3 mm every year.

As many as 16% of the places subsided at a rate of more than 10mm.

Shanghai has already sunk more than 3m since the 1920s.

If reckless groundwater use and urbanization continue and the sea level rise effect caused by global warming is combined,

There is also a terrifying warning that about 26% of China's territory will sink within 100 years.

What about other countries?

Dozens of U.S. coastal cities are sinking, including New York City and Boston City, and the Netherlands has already sunk 25% of its land below sea level.

Mexico City is sinking at a rate of up to 50 cm per year, and Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, has also been a factor in the relocation of the capital.

The ground subsidence in Asian coastal cities such as Manila and Bangkok was particularly fast.

In fact, we measured the speed of ground subsidence in 99 cities around the world and found that 17 of the top 20 cities were in Asia.

It is also worth noting that almost all of the cities undergoing ground subsidence are residential and industrial areas with high groundwater use.

A terrifying nightmare, subsidence.

It's not a story of some countries.

About 200 regions in 34 countries are undergoing severe subsidence due to groundwater, according to a paper by Spain's Geological Mineral Research Institute.

At this rate, 8 percent of the earth's surface and 120 times the size of Korea will sink by 2040, and 635 million people worldwide will suffer residential damage.

Can't we stop it?

Tokyo, Japan, which suffered from rapid urbanization in the 20th century.

As the groundwater was extracted repeatedly, the ground sank nearly 5m.

Since then, water supply facilities have been improved and groundwater intake regulations have been introduced to curb ground subsidence.

It's not impossible.

It must be prevented now through cross-national policies and international agreements.

We must prevent this land from sinking any longer because of human greed, before it is too late.