Global Warming Armageddon Shangai, Bangkok Could Disappear Next Century

 I suppose throwing any event into the Global Warming Armageddon  pot is good propaganda.

Scientists from the Oceanographic Institute Woods Hole called for international and national action this week, because they argued that 500 million people worldwide living near river mouths could soon disappear under water.

Shanghai, China's largest city by population (23 million) and one of the world's great commerce hubs now faces an uncertain future from major floods, according to a new study. Worse, the city has not taken heavy-duty measures to protect itself, the study warns.

Still recovering from three consecutive typhoons that hit the city in early August, Shanghai could be hit even harder from floods that could decimate the city's economic life in the coming years - 

That includes Shangai, located on the Yangtze River Delta, and Bangkok, on the Chao Phraya delta.

The scientists explained that the extraction of natural resources and hydraulic industry have greatly reduced the amount of sediment accumulating in these areas to form the deltas.

For instance, the Chao Phraya delta in Thailand is sinking by 5–15 centimeters each year because of intense groundwater use, while the Po delta in Italy sunk by 3–5 meters last century, mainly as a result of methane extraction, they explain.

For this reason, and the fact that the sea level is growing under the effects of climate change, thereby eroding the plains of the deltas, people living in these areas are very likely to be flooded over the next century.

In Pakistan, for example, one-fifth of the Indus delta plain has already been eroded since the river was first dammed about 80 years ago. However, currenthuman activity is making delta sinking quicker and more dangerous than ever, threatening both humans and local wild and plant life. This includes “huge losses of ecological services, economic and social crises, and large-scale migrations,” they warn.

The estimates of sea level rise have been 1.8-3 mm/yr. Assume that’s caused entirely by climate change.  It would be <10% of  the apparent sea level rise for the Chao Phraya or the Po deleta, the rest being caused by subsidence and erosion attributed to human activity such as groundwater withdrawal, resource extraction and changing river flow patterns.  Since everyone is nattering about climate change,