Environment

New York, the city that never sleeps... sown with towering, vertiginous skyscrapers that are in danger of disappearing, sinking under their own weight. 

In a scientific study published in the journal Earth's Future, researchers “attempt to assess how the cumulative mass of the megalopolis' infrastructure influences its subsidence”, a phenomenon directly caused by human activity and soil erosion. 

The city under 762 million tonnes of construction

The city known as the Big Apple is under enormous pressure. Geologists estimate the total mass of the one million buildings, skyscrapers and towers on New York's soil at 762 million tonnes. “The equivalent of more than 75,000 Eiffel Towers,” says La Presse. This impressive force is causing the cultural and economic capital of the United States to sink by one to two millimetres a year. According to the study, subsidence could reach 4.5mm per year in neighborhoods where buildings have been erected on artificial ground. 

Tom Parsons, an American geophysicist and co-author of the study, claims that reducing the number of concrete towers wouldn't change the phenomenon. “The primary cause of the subsidence of New York and the East Coast is tectonic and cannot be contained,” he stresses. The “sinking” would be responsible for the accelerated rise in water levels, a consequence of climate disruption and melting ice. “According to Sea Level Rise.org, New York's water level has risen 23 centimetres since 1950, and the city predicts that it will rise another 20 to 75cm by 2050, and even 1. m by 2100, with repeated storms,” reports La Presse. 

The “climate resilience” plan

To combat the threat and protect itself from rising waters, the metropolis has drawn up a far-reaching plan to fortify its 836km of coastline. Total cost? 20 billion dollars, that's all. It takes a lot of money to protect the 8.5 million souls who ply the streets of this city of 251 skyscrapers every day. 

(MH with AsD - Source: La Presse - Illustration: Unsplash)