Is New York really sinking? | BBC Global

There are more than a million buildings in New York City that weigh 762 million tonnes (1.68 trillion pounds).

The massive cocktail of concrete, metal and glass is one of the critical factors causing the city to sink at a considerable rate of 1-2 millimetres per year, according to researchers at the United States Geological Survey and the University of Rhode Island.

But it isn’t the only cause.

In this revealing video, journalist Alexander Trowbridge asks experts to explain the unusual combination of natural events causing the Big Apple to dip, and how the city prepares to mitigate the situation.

In this revealing video, video journalist Alexander Trowbridge talks with experts who explain the unusual combination of natural events dipping down the Big Apple and how the city prepares to mitigate the anticipated situation.

#bbc #newyork #geology

[martijnkeisers]

New Amsterdam can learn from old Amsterdam!

[MenOfMeansUK]

And millions of Americans will believe it's a conspiracy.

[lazyboy]

well, combining sea level rise and land subsiding, the city "sinks" by around 5mm every year. that's not really a lot. it would take 200 years to sink a meter, which would be the point where the city is in trouble, sorta? i mean, it's not good, but it's plenty of time to fix the issue. or for the whole planet to become uninhabitable anyway

[OgreFunk]

What kind of One Piece spoiler is this

[movie]

*The Bad News:* New York City is sinking.

*The Good News:* There are ways to adapt and improve around the city to reduce water intake.

[Han-otll]

Netherlands is in the same situation, rising sea levels, artificial land, and also sinking due to glaciers from the Ice age, they seem to be adapting fine. To save “New Amsterdam” we might need to learn something from “Old” Amsterdam

[Heavilymoderated]

It’ll make a good base for coral reefs once it’s underwater, the temperatures are super high, and humans are gone.

[pjacobsen]

It's a little deceptive to mention CO2 emissions from buildings in a discussion about adapting to sea level rise and land subsidence. While reducing CO2 emissions may slow sea level rise in the very long term, it is not a mitigation strategy that will work over the next hundred years. It's much too slow for that, and New York City can't wait.

[mattbosley]

How does reducing greenhouse gases make Manhattan sink less quickly? I don't see the connection. Unless they build a wall around the entire island, there's going to be a problem eventually. They need to take some lessons from the Dutch and Venice.

[ЦзинКэ-ых]

Interestingly, when I see images of NY in various fantastic movies, where it gets flooded it always looks so natural to me. Like, people are supposed to go around in boats and elevated rails/bridges/passways, there are floating schools, shops, restaurants, etc everywhere, and you can cross the city via skyways between tall buildings.

[_robustus_]

The big U…I hadn’t heard about that. I thought the yanks were performing their usual “Naw, it’ll be fine”maneuver. Way to be proactive, guys! You need to do more of that. Infrastructure <cough> <cough>

[arata-qwcz]

As everyone knows, New York is one of the biggest and most influential cities, and this fact shows that it is one of the causes of pollution or harm to the world. I wonder whether the water is rising or the cities are sinking.

[rickenbacker]

4-6mm a year means water levels in NY will be about 1m higher in 200 years time.

[CK]

Heard about Manhattan island sinking years ago. The whole borough won’t be underwater in the next 100-200 years though. That’s enough time to invest into some form of solution or even infrastructure to combat the rising sea levels like expanding the Manhattan island, and connecting the island to at least Governors island and build around there.

[chagichagi]

I misunderstood NY is sinking economically with the title.

[bestmoviesclips]

Water level rising and the city goes down..😢

[Padq]

why is everyone saying cities are sinking instead of water rising?

[bobtisdale]

Old rule of thumb for Manhattan skyscrapers: the weight of the stone excavated for a skyscraper's many levels of basements and sub-basements outweighed the weight of the skyscraper itself. Doesn't sound like the comical "researchers" consider the excavated stone.

Regards.
Bob

[containedhurricane]

Why do corporations need to have their main offices in New York City? There are other cities to move to in the huge country

[KenKenPa]

Let's move to "Eastern Manhattan" in Japan! That's great, and have ferries!