Rapidly Rising sea levels threaten China
Pastor Dale Morgan
Rapidly Rising sea levels threaten China*
BEIJING (AP) — Sea levels off Shanghai and other Chinese coastal cities
are rising at an alarming rate, leading to contamination of drinking
water supplies and other threats, China's State Oceanic Administration
reported Thursday.
Waters off the industrial port city of Tianjin, 60 miles southeast of
Beijing, rose by 7.72 inches over the past three decades, the
administration said.
Seas off the business hub of Shanghai have risen by 4.53 inches over the
same period, the report said.
Administration experts said global climate change and the sinking of
coastal land due to the pumping of ground water were the major causes
behind rising water levels.
"Sea level rises worldwide cannot be reversed, so Chinese city officials
and planners must take measures to adapt to the change," Chen Manchun,
an administration researcher, was quoted as saying on the central
government's official website.
Globally, rising seas threaten to submerge low-lying island groups,
erode coastlines and force the construction of vast new levees. Some
scientists have warned that melting of the vast glaciers of Greenland
could cause a 13-foot rise in sea levels in coming centuries.
Higher sea levels and sinking land caused by dropping water table levels
complicate Shanghai's already difficult task of providing safe water
supplies to its 20 million people due to salt water leaching into its
aquifer, the administration said.
Along China's 11,185 miles of coastline, sea levels have risen by an
average of 3.54 inches, while average coastal water temperatures were
slightly warmer, the report said.
Waters levels have risen more quickly in the country's north, the report
said, but gave no reasons for the disparity.
Meanwhile, the administration's China 2007 Sea Environmental Quality
Report, also released this week, showed a marked deterioration in
coastal water quality as a result of pollution from human activity onshore.