TOUR GUIDE: You tired of the same old boring holiday destinations?
TOURIST: Ugh. Paris again? Blegh.
TOUR GUIDE: Well, why not get on board with the tours of the future? Literally. FutureTours will take you to iconic destinations in the distant future. Like: future New York. Future Venice. And even future Tokyo.
JOSH LANGMAN, REPORTER: Yeah, while this is a bit extreme, there may come a time when travelling to some of the world's most iconic destinations could involve getting pretty wet. Because believe it or not, these cities are sinking. In fact, there are over 30 sinking cities around the world: including Jakarta, Tokyo, New Orleans, Miami, Houston, Alexandria, Amsterdam, and Venice.
Now, look — before you hit the panic button, know this: when we say "sinking" we actually mean a pretty slow sinking. Like, a few millimetres or centimetres a year slow. But it's already having a pretty big impact in some places.
Like here, in Bangkok in Thailand. See those power lines poking out of the water? Yeah — there used to be an entire fishing village there. But now, it's disappeared under the water. And the local primary school now only has 4 remaining students, after many families were forced to leave the area.
PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER: The school used to be in front of the temple, but it's been moved back 3 times. So now the school is behind the temple.
So what's going on?
Well, this sinking feeling is partly because of climate change, which is melting glaciers and causing sea levels to rise. It's also causing more extreme weather, which contributes to coastal erosion.
But for many cities, it also comes down to something called 'subsidence'. That's when the ground underneath buildings and structures become compressed and moves downward, causing them to literally sink. And that happens partly because of the ground cities are built on. Bangkok, for example, was built on a lot of soft clay. Similarly, Venice is built on a muddy lagoon, which means it isn't very stable. And it's also because of the sheer weight of the city. Over in New York, all the buildings combined weigh a whopping 764 billion kg. That's 140 million elephants by the way and it's a lot of pressure.
Subsidence can also be made worse when humans pump water out of the ground for drinking and irrigation, causing it to compress even further. So, what do we do about it?
Well, that's a bit of a tough one. Some places have taken pretty drastic action, like Jakarta, in Indonesia. It's now the fastest sinking city in the world, dropping up to 15 centimetres a year. Which is pretty high when you compare it to the rate of some other cities. So, authorities are planning to abandon Jakarta altogether. And they've already started building a new capital here in Borneo. And over the next few years, they'll begin the mammoth task of shifting some of the city's 10.56 million residents.
Some countries are trying to engineer ways to save their cities by using things like seawalls and water pumps, and by limiting construction and groundwater extraction. Then there are more futuristic ideas, like building cities that can float on water. Woah. But while that may be a solution further down the track, right now, there are a lot of people around the world dealing with the reality of sinking cities. And an uncertain and soggy future.
