Shrinking freshwater availability increasing land contribution to sea level rise

[garrettdreyfus]

I’m not sure this title is completely correct

“The researchers identified the type of water loss on land, and for the first time, found that 68% came from groundwater alone — contributing more to sea level rise than glaciers and ice caps on land.”

They are saying the leading loss of water loss is from ground water. The largest contributor to sea level rise I would guess is still thermosteric sea level rise due to the ocean becoming warmer and less dense

See ipcc https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/chapter/chapter-9/

9.6.1 Global and Regional Sea Level Change in the Instrumental Era

In particular, Cross-Chapter 9.1, Figure 1 | Global Energy Inventory and Sea Level Budget. Panel b

EDIT: @dang could the submission title be changed to the article or journal article title?

“New global study shows freshwater is disappearing at alarming rates”

Or

“Unprecedented continental drying, shrinking freshwater availability, and increasing land contributions to sea level rise”

[garrettdreyfus]

My reading of Figure 6 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adx0298 suggests that this study still has thermosteric effects making up the majority of sea level rise.

I also highly recommend reading up on the GRACE satellite used in this study it is amazing https://gracefo.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/50/how-grace-fo-measu...

[ornel]

Quote from the paper: "the continents are now the leading contributor (44%) to mass-driven GMSL rise". As regards to non-mass-driven rise, another article[0] states, "Ice-mass loss—predominantly from glaciers—has caused twice as much sea-level rise since 1900 as has thermal expansion". I think the findings about sea level rise are as interesting as the ones about fresh water disappearance.

[0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2591-3

[srameshc]

> New findings from studying over two decades of satellite observations reveal that the Earth’s continents have experienced unprecedented freshwater loss since 2002, driven by climate change, unsustainable groundwater use and extreme droughts.

The title captures the crux of the story

[cwillu]

@dang doesn't do anything; but they're quite responsive to email.

[dang]

Ok, I've put the second suggestion up there. Thanks!

(Submitted title was "Freshwater loss from land is the lead driver of sea-level rise")

[cubefox]

Original title: "New global study shows freshwater is disappearing at alarming rates"

[misja111]

> “Continents are drying, freshwater availability is shrinking, and sea-level rise is accelerating.

Does anybody have any data about the accelerating sea-level rising? As a Dutch person I'm of course very interested in this, but I can't find any data that supports this.

[BlackFly]

This is what I found:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/sea-level

I don't see much of an acceleration...

[pcdoodle]

The title gave me a stroke.

[monkeywork]

Recent and relevant video from Hank Green: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pThcIgJyNME

[SoftTalker]

So go long on desalination tech?

[ralfd]

Easier said than done. What companies have stock? Or just buy Jinko solar?

[jfengel]

Unlike climate change, this is a self correcting problem. We'll tap the last of the fresh water, and then no more sea level rise (from that source).

Problem solved, once and for all.

[causal]

Solutions that include mass die-off of human populations are generally considered incomplete

[andyferris]

Just like the coal, gas, oil and forests - so exactly like climate change, in fact...

(It's a problem that saturates but not a problem that self-corrects, and the saturation point is undesirable in any case)

[treyd]

The polar ice caps are the same way. Once we melt all the ice then the sea level rise will stop, and we can just deal with the change in lifestyle.

[ada1981]

It’s a good reminder that “climate change” will be a minor inconvenience for the rich, and an existential crisis for everyone else.

And that most of the inconvience will be needing to deploy robots to keep the poor away.

[marcosdumay]

Well, that applies to most of our habitat-change problems.

[robertclaus]

Interesting second order effect of global warming.

[giantg2]

So they claim the majority of the water is ground water and also that it is due to climate change. But I thought I've seen other studies talking about how ground water is being depleted at a higher rate than it could be replaced, even using historical averages. This sounds more like a population/industrialization issue than a climate issue.

[cycomanic]

> So they claim the majority of the water is ground water and also that it is due to climate change. But I thought I've seen other studies talking about how ground water is being depleted at a higher rate than it could be replaced, even using historical averages. This sounds more like a population/industrialization issue than a climate issue.

I'm not sure I understand where you see a contradiction. Land areas are using groundwater faster than it can be replenished, so land is getting drier. That's according to the article (just basing of the summary not the scientific one) is driven by both overuse and drier and warmer weather. The thing is, that's a feedback loop, if it gets drier we'll be using more groundwater for irrigation. So both processes are driven by climate change.

[pstuart]

I think the distinction is between rainwater runoff vs aquifer depletion. They are related, and if we were collectively smarter we would do a better job of managing the runoff to help restore the aquifers.

[HocusLocus]

Sea level rise (#2) is a 'crisis' for absolutely no one.

I set an alarm for (#1), "Preparing for the low pressure 12ft tidal/storm surge or the 18ft tsunami that could arrive as early as tomorrow and probably will within 10 years, unless one is incredibly dumb or has never lived near the ocean."

I did not set an alarm for #2.