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Agence France-Presse

If New York is the city that never sleeps then how’s this for keeping you up at night? It is also sinking.
The Big Apple is gradually going down partly because of the weight of the skyscrapers that make the concrete jungle famous, a new study has found.
The descent makes the metropolis more vulnerable to rising sea levels and coastal flooding caused by climate change, the researchers noted.
The paper, published this month in the Earth’s Future journal, sought to estimate how the city’s vast infrastructure impacts subsidence.
Subsidence is the sinking of land mass caused by either natural processes such as erosion or human activity like mineral extraction.
The geologists calculated that New York’s more than one million buildings added up to a total mass of 1.68 trillion pounds (762 billion kilograms) of downward pressure on the earth.
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CNN said that was equivalent to roughly 1.9 million fully fuelled Boeing 747-400s.
The report concluded that America’s financial capital is sinking at an average rate of one to two millimetres per year.
Some areas built on softer rock or artificial landfill were subsiding as much as four and a half millimetres per year, the study added.
But building fewer skyscrapers will not solve the problem, lead author Tom Parsons said.
“The primary cause of subsidence in New York and along much of the Eastern Seaboard is tectonic and cannot be stopped,” said the geophysicist at the US Geological Survey.
The subsidence is set to exacerbate the impact of sea level rise caused by warming temperatures and the melting of the world’s ice caps.

The organisation Sea Level Rise.org says water levels around New York are nine inches higher than they were in 1950.
The city’s government predicts that surrounding waters will rise by between eight inches (20cm) and 30 inches by 2050.
The state is spending billions of dollars building sea walls, raising roads and improving drainage to mitigate the risks.
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But low-lying areas have already felt the brunt of devastating floods caused by more intense storms.
Hurricane Sandy in 2012 killed more than 40 New Yorkers, destroyed approximately 300 homes and left tens of thousands of people without power.
Hurricane Ida in 2021 left more than a dozen people dead in New York City, many after they were unable to escape flooding basements.
Parsons said it was impossible to say when parts of New York will be under water but it will happen.

“It’s too difficult to predict even a rough time because while city subsidence is relatively steady, forecasts for sea level rise are uncertain and depend on expected future rates of greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.
New York is not the only major world city that is sinking.
Subsidence and rising water levels have fuelled fears that Venice may one day be entirely submerged.
And Jakarta is sinking at such an alarming rate due to the excessive extraction of groundwater that Indonesia is relocating its capital.
Additional reporting by Associated Press


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United States

New York City is sinking under the weight of its skyscrapers. Can it be stopped?

Earth’s changing climate could accelerate the timeline for parts of New York City to disappear under water. Photo: AP

More than a million buildings are spread across the city’s five boroughs. Photo: AFP

Already, New York City is at risk of flooding because of massive storms that can cause the ocean to swell inland. File photo: AP

‘Zombie ice’ from Greenland will raise global sea level almost 30cm, study says

Icebergs in eastern Greenland. Even if the entire world stopped burning fossil fuels today, a new study finds the Greenland ice sheet would still lose enough ice to add nearly a foot to rising sea levels. File photo: AP

Venice activates flood defence system as sea levels rise

Venice’s MOSE flood defence system has been activated. Photo: LaPresse via ZUMA Press / dpa

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Bal Harbour, Florida. The world’s oceans have suddenly spiked much hotter and well above record levels, with scientists trying to figure out what it means. Photo: AP

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New research estimates the city’s land mass is sinking at an average rate of 1-2mm per year, under the weight of more than a million buildings
The subsidence is set to exacerbate the impact of sea level rise caused by warming temperatures and the melting of the world’s ice caps


If rising oceans aren’t worry enough, add this to the risks New York City faces: the metropolis is slowly sinking under the weight of its skyscrapers, homes, asphalt and humanity itself.


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Greenland