Latest news with #Earth'sFuture
Deccan Herald
5 days ago
- Science
- Deccan Herald
Rising seas, shifting sands threaten ancient Alexandria
From her ninth-floor balcony over Alexandria's seafront, Eman Mabrouk looked down at the strip of sand that used to be the wide beach where she played as a child. "The picture is completely different now," she said. The sea has crept closer, the concrete barriers have got longer and the buildings around her have cracked and shifted. Every year 40 of them collapse across Egypt's second city, up from one on average a decade ago, a study shows. The storied settlement that survived everything from bombardment by the British in the 1880s to attacks by crusaders in the 1160s is succumbing to a subtler foe infiltrating its foundations. The warming waters of the Mediterranean are rising, part of a global phenomenon driven by climate change. In Alexandria, that is leading to coastal erosion and sending saltwater seeping through the sandy substrate, undermining buildings from below, researchers say. "This is why we see the buildings in Alexandria being eroded from the bottom up," said Essam Heggy, a water scientist at the University of Southern California who co-wrote the study published in February describing a growing crisis in Alexandria and along the whole coast. The combination of continuous seawater rises, ground subsidence and coastal erosion means Alexandria's coastline has receded on average 3.5 metres a year over the last 20 years, he told Reuters. 'For many people who see that climatic change is something that will happen in the future and we don't need to worry about it, it's actually happening right now, right here," Heggy said. The situation is alarming enough when set out in the report - "Soaring Building Collapses in Southern Mediterranean Coasts" in the journal Earth's Future. For Mabrouk, 50, it has been part of day-to-day life for years. She had to leave her last apartment when the building started moving.
Observer
6 days ago
- Science
- Observer
Alexandria is most at risk along the Mediterranean Basin
From her ninth-floor balcony over Alexandria's seafront, Eman Mabrouk looked down at the strip of sand that used to be the wide beach where she played as a child. "The picture is completely different now," she said. The sea has crept closer, the concrete barriers have grown longer, and the buildings around her have cracked and shifted. Every year, 40 of them collapse across Egypt's second city, up from one on average a decade ago, a study shows. The storied settlement that survived everything from bombardment by the British in the 1880s to attacks by crusaders in the 1160s is succumbing to a subtler foe infiltrating its foundations. The warming waters of the Mediterranean are rising, part of a global phenomenon driven by climate change. In Alexandria, that is leading to coastal erosion and sending saltwater seeping through the sandy substrate, undermining buildings from below, researchers say. "This is why we see the buildings in Alexandria being eroded from the bottom up," said Essam Heggy, a water scientist at the University of Southern California who co-wrote the study published in February describing a growing crisis in Alexandria and along the whole coast. The combination of continuous seawater rises, ground subsidence, and coastal erosion means Alexandria's coastline has receded on average 3.5 metres a year over the last 20 years, he told Reuters."For many people who see that climate change is something that will happen in the future and we don't need to worry about it, it's happening right now, right here," Heggy said. The situation is alarming enough when set out in the report - "Soaring Building Collapses in Southern Mediterranean Coasts" in the journal "Earth's Future". For Mabrouk, 50, it has been part of day-to-day life for years. She had to leave her last apartment when the building started moving."It eventually got slanted. I mean, after two years, we were all ... leaning," she told Reuters. "If you put something on the table, you would feel like it was rolling. "BARRIERS, BULLDOZERS, CRACKS Egypt's government has acknowledged the problem and promised action. Submerged breakwaters reduce coastal wave action, and truckloads of sand replenish stripped beaches. Nine concrete sea barriers have been set up "to protect the delta and Alexandria from the impact of rising sea waves," Alexandria's governor, Ahmed Khaled Hassan, said. The barriers stretch out to sea, piles of striking geometric shapes, their clear curves and lines standing out against the crumbling, flaking apartment blocks on the land. Authorities are trying to get in ahead of the collapses by demolishing buildings at risk. Around 7,500 were marked for destruction, and 55,000 new housing units will be built, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told a crowd as he stood on one of the concrete barriers on July 14."There isn't a day that passes without a partial or complete collapse of at least one building that already had a demolition order," Madbouly said. Some are hopeful the measures can make a difference."There are no dangers now ... They have made their calculations," coffee shop owner Shady Mostafa said as he watched builders working on one of the barriers. Others are less sure. Alexandria's 70-km (45-mile) long coastal zone was marked down as the most vulnerable in the whole Mediterranean basin in the February report. Around 2% of the city's housing stock - or about 7,000 buildings - were probably unsafe, it added. Every day, more people are pouring into the city - Alexandria's population has nearly doubled to about 5.8 million in the last 25 years, swollen by workers and tourists, according to Egypt's statistics agency CAPMAS. Property prices keep going up, despite all the risks, trackers levels are rising across the world, but they are rising faster in the Mediterranean than in many other bodies of water, partly because the relative shallowness of its sea basin means it is warming up faster. The causes may be global, but the impacts are local, said 26-year-old Alexandria resident Ahmed al-Ashry."There's a change in the buildings, there's a change in the streets," he told Reuters. "Now and then, we try to renovate the buildings, and in less than a month, the renovations start to fall apart. Our neighbours have started saying the same thing: that cracks have started to appear."
Straits Times
7 days ago
- Science
- Straits Times
Rising seas and shifting sands attack ancient Alexandria from below
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt - From her ninth-floor balcony over Alexandria's seafront, Eman Mabrouk looked down at the strip of sand that used to be the wide beach where she played as a child. "The picture is completely different now," she said. The sea has crept closer, the concrete barriers have got longer and the buildings around her have cracked and shifted. Every year 40 of them collapse across Egypt's second city, up from one on average a decade ago, a study shows. The storied settlement that survived everything from bombardment by the British in the 1880s to attacks by crusaders in the 1160s is succumbing to a subtler foe infiltrating its foundations. The warming waters of the Mediterranean are rising, part of a global phenomenon driven by climate change. In Alexandria, that is leading to coastal erosion and sending saltwater seeping through the sandy substrate, undermining buildings from below, researchers say. "This is why we see the buildings in Alexandria being eroded from the bottom up," said Essam Heggy, a water scientist at the University of Southern California who co-wrote the study published in February describing a growing crisis in Alexandria and along the whole coast. The combination of continuous seawater rises, ground subsidence and coastal erosion means Alexandria's coastline has receded on average 3.5 metres a year over the last 20 years, he told Reuters. 'For many people who see that climatic change is something that will happen in the future and we don't need to worry about it, it's actually happening right now, right here," Heggy said. The situation is alarming enough when set out in the report - "Soaring Building Collapses in Southern Mediterranean Coasts" in the journal "Earth's Future". For Mabrouk, 50, it has been part of day-to-day life for years. She had to leave her last apartment when the building started moving. "It eventually got slanted. I mean, after two years, we were all ... leaning," she told Reuters. "If you put something on the table, you would feel like it was rolling." BARRIERS, BULLDOZERS, CRACKS Egypt's government has acknowledged the problem and promised action. Submerged breakwaters reduce coastal wave action and truckloads of sand replenish stripped beaches. Nine concrete sea barriers have been set up "to protect the delta and Alexandria from the impact of rising sea waves," Alexandria's governor, Ahmed Khaled Hassan, said. The barriers stretch out to sea, piles of striking geometric shapes, their clear curves and lines standing out against the crumbling, flaking apartment blocks on the land. Authorities are trying to get in ahead of the collapses by demolishing buildings at risk. Around 7,500 were marked for destruction and 55,000 new housing units will be built, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told a crowd as he stood on one of the concrete barriers on July 14. "There isn't a day that passes without a partial or complete collapse of at least one building that already had a demolition order," Madbouly said. Some are hopeful the measures can make a difference. "There are no dangers now ... They have made their calculations," coffee shop owner Shady Mostafa said as he watched builders working on one of the barriers. Others are less sure. Alexandria's 70-km (45-mile) long coastal zone was marked down as the most vulnerable in the whole Mediterranean basin in the February report. Around 2% of the city's housing stock – or about 7,000 buildings – were probably unsafe, it added. Every day, more people are pouring into the city - Alexandria's population has nearly doubled to about 5.8 million in the last 25 years, swollen by workers and tourists, according to Egypt's statistics agency CAPMAS. Property prices keep going up, despite all the risks, trackers show. Sea levels are rising across the world, but they are rising faster in the Mediterranean than in many other bodies of water, partly because the relative shallowness of its sea basin means it is warming up faster. The causes may be global, but the impacts are local, said 26-year-old Alexandria resident Ahmed al-Ashry. "There's a change in the buildings, there's a change in the streets," he told Reuters. "Every now and then we try to renovate the buildings, and in less than a month, the renovations start to fall apart. Our neighbours have started saying the same thing, that cracks have started to appear." REUTERS
Chicago Tribune
21-07-2025
- Science
- Chicago Tribune
Conservation practices needed to protect Illinois farmers as topsoil loss increases, experts say
As the deadline approaches for Congress to renew the U.S. Farm Bill, agricultural experts and farmers are calling on legislators to prioritize protecting topsoil in the Midwest and throughout the country, especially as the federal government is withdrawing from conservation initiatives. Topsoil is eroding, on average, at a rate of three-quarters of an inch per year in the Midwest, a rate double what the U.S. Department of Agriculture considers sustainable, according to a 2022 study published in the journal Earth's Future. The study also concluded more than 57 billion metric tons of topsoil have eroded in the Midwest over the last 160 years. 'Not to sound alarmist, but we rely and a lot of the world relies on the Midwest producing a lot of food,' said Evan Thaler, a geological researcher who helped author the study. 'Fertilizing crops can't keep up with the amount of productivity that's lost by erosion.' Topsoil contains living microorganisms and decaying plant roots that are important for productive crop growth. Excessive topsoil erosion can lead to a decrease in soil fertility levels and a decline in potential crop yields. No-till and reduced tillage farming, as well as cover crops, are among the best ways to counter topsoil erosion, experts say, especially as climate change has led to increased rainfall intensity. But under the Trump administration, federal support for these practices could be dramatically reduced. Some experts, including Andrew Margenot, an associate professor of crop sciences at the University of Illinois, have expressed skepticism about the figures in the study, particularly as they relate to erosion rates in Illinois. But Margenot called topsoil erosion a 'silent killer' whose worst effects may not become apparent for decades. Thaler said erosion rates aren't expected to be as severe in areas with flatter landscapes like much of Illinois. 'So it's not the whole landscape that's eroding quickly,' Thaler said of the Midwest. 'It's just portions of the landscape, but those portions of the landscape are eroding quite fast.' Regardless, experts agreed that excessive topsoil loss is an issue that poses long-term risks for the Midwest and requires assistance for farmers looking to implement conservation farming practices. 'It (erosion) is a way that we destroy really what is the best resource we have in this state,' Margenot said. 'We have a lot of wind, a lot of coal, etc., but we also have the best soils in the world.' Tillage clears crop residue from fields after harvesting and helps prepare the soil for seeding. The USDA notes that conventional tillage practices are most intensive on the soil and can increase the likelihood of erosion and nutrient runoff into waterways. In contrast, no-till and reduced tillage farming incorporate practices such as field mulching, crop rotation, as well as less-intensive tillage equipment. 'When they talk about 'conventional agricultural practices,' tillage is our No. 1 offender,' said Emily Hansen, a commercial agricultural educator with University of Illinois Extension. The 2018 Farm Bill — an omnibus bill that includes federal funding for conservation programs — is set to expire in September after having twice been extended by Congress. This reauthorization deadline comes after President Donald Trump immediately took steps to suspend funding under former President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act on his first day back in office. Billions of dollars earmarked under the act for farming conservation practices were frozen. This funding freeze came at a time when the impacts of topsoil erosion are becoming more apparent in Illinois. High winds over recently tilled farm fields likely contributed to a massive dust storm in May, the first to affect the Chicago area in 40 years. In 2023, a dust storm in central Illinois caused 84 vehicles to crash on I-55, killing eight people and injuring at least 36. Such incidents have helped to renew debates on agriculture's role in hazardous weather events and further discussions on the importance of topsoil conservation. Others emphasize that soil conservation is important for the long-term economic outlook of the U.S. Cash crops, hidden costs'For decades, we have rightly focused on protecting our most vulnerable soils,' said Garrett Hawkins, president of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, in a statement. 'However, IL Corn encourages decision makers to think differently, to consider how programs can better protect our most productive soils.' The association is a farmer-led organization that represents the interests of Illinois corn farmers in Washington, D.C., and Springfield. 'Conserving our most productive acres is essential if we want to stay competitive in global markets,' Hawkins said. 'Modernizing our approach to conservation and creating programs that empower farmers to protect their most valuable soils with flexible and scalable solutions is vital. If we fail to deliver effective programs, technical assistance, and meaningful funding to our farmers, soil health and soil erosion will continue to be a challenge.' The association developed the Precision Conservation Management program, which collects data and helps farmers adopt conservation practices. 'What they've found over the last five years of data is that the most profitable fields in Illinois are doing no tillage with soybeans and one pass or less with corn,' Hansen said. In most cases, she said, data has shown there isn't an economic or agricultural benefit for corn farmers to do more than one tillage pass over their fields. According to data from the University of Illinois, 46% of soybean fields in Illinois had adopted no-till during the years of 2015 to 2017 but only 13% of cornfields. Illinois is the No. 1 producer of soybeans in the U.S. and the No. 2 producer of corn. 'Corn is a lot more challenging and that's where we see people doing those multiple tillage passes,' Hansen said. 'Corn, it needs good contact with the soil, so you do have to do some amount of tillage with it. But you know more than one pass is probably overdoing it a bit.' Among the first to get involved with PCM was Dirk Rice, a corn and soybean farmer in Champaign County. Rice said the genesis of Precision Conservation Management was the desire to help address farmers' financial concerns when adopting conservation practices. 'If you want a farmer to shift away from a practice that he knows has worked for him for 20, 30 years, there's always a concern of 'How does that affect me, financially?'' Rice said. 'And so the idea was, let's look financially at how farmers are doing this practice compared to this practice, compared to this practice,' he said. 'And I think after a decade or more of data, what we're seeing is the people that are doing less tillage are at least as profitable.' Rice, who said all of his soybean fields are no-till and over 80% of his corn fields are no-till or strip-till (a less intensive form of tillage), noted some difficulty in dealing with potential fungi that can grow in corn residue. He also said grain quality has declined in certain situations where he's no-tilled. Despite such challenges, Rice said soil conservation has been a tradition in his family for generations through practices like crop rotation, and it's a tradition he intends to continue. 'I'm sitting on ground my great-great-grandfather moved (to) in 1881,' Rice said. 'It's real personal to me that I leave that better than it was when I got here. And I think every generation in our family has felt the same way.' Rice added that fertilizer is a huge expense for his farm's operation and keeping soil nutrients in place helps with these costs and reduces runoff. 'Anything I can do to keep all my nutrients in place, that's how much less I got to turn around and buy next year or somewhere down the road. So that's a real no-brainer to me,' Rice said. Along with no-till and reduced tillage, cover crops — plants grown when the main cash crop isn't planted — can help keep topsoil 'anchored in place' and mitigate erosion and nutrient loss, Hansen said. She said cover crops such as cereal rye, which has a similar root structure to native prairie grasses, can help prevent nutrient and fertilizer runoff into streams and rivers that ultimately lead into the Gulf of Mexico. 'Cover crops have multiple benefits. They're tackling that erosion problem, they're tackling the nutrient loss,' Hansen said. 'So I like telling farmers to plant cover crops, but easier said than done.' Margenot noted that most farmland in Illinois is rented and not directly owned by the farmers who cultivate it, which can complicate efforts to plant cover crops. Less than a fourth of Illinois farmland is owned by the farmer who works the land, according to data from the Illinois Farm Business Farm Management, a nonprofit association that helps farmers make management decisions. 'They're not farmed by the owner, and a lot of times the landlord just wants a check,' Margenot said. 'They don't have a patience for cover crops because that digs into the net profit.' Margenot compared cover crops to adding another ball for a juggler and said they 'complicate the operation' for farmers. While great at reducing nitrate losses from fields, Margenot said, cover crops aren't 'that common in the Midwest,' especially in Illinois, because 'they don't really make you money.' 'When it comes to the bottom line, farms are businesses. They have mortgages to pay kids to send to college. Cover crops are not a great proposition,' Margenot said. 'I think they're great ecologically and I think that they, in the long term, probably have a positive ROI (return on investment) for the farm. But in the short term there's good evidence that cover crops aren't a great financial decision for a lot of operations.' Margenot said a comprehensive Farm Bill needs to incentivize farmers and landowners to plant cover crops given the associated costs and complications to farm operations. Thaler, the erosion study author, agreed. 'We need to be able to feed people,' he said. 'And unfortunately, if we don't start farming in a way that conserves our topsoil (and) really take approaches to allow farmers to experiment with conservation techniques, then I think we're going to be in some serious danger.' Among federal programs included in the Farm Bill is the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which provides technical and financial assistance for farmers implementing conservation efforts. Jonathan Coppess, director of the Gardner Agriculture Policy Program at the University of Illinois, worked on legislation for the 2008 and 2014 Farms Bills. 'What EQIP does is the farmer goes out and takes on a practice that will reduce soil erosion, like a grass waterway for example so you get a washout spot in a field,' Coppess said. 'So the farmer will go out and get that done, and then about 75% of the expected cost of that would be reimbursed, if you will, by USDA through this EQIP program.' 'There's a lot of uncertainty around' the upcoming Farm Bill, Coppess said. 'There was a significant amount of funding provided by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act, about $18 billion over multiple years for programs like EQIP, and the (Trump) administration froze a lot of that.' In April, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to take immediate steps to reinstate this funding, citing a lack of authority on the part of the Departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Interior and Agriculture, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency. Coppess described the short-term impacts of this funding freeze as 'potentially catastrophic' for farmers who spent money on conservation initiatives and who had expected reimbursement funding, especially if they had taken out a loan. 'If the administration eliminated whatever's remaining of that (Inflation Reduction Act) money, which may be as much as $12 billion, then over the long term that is a reduction in the investment in conservation,' Coppess said. 'We're investing in practices that will keep soil in the field, and get it out of the waterways, not have dust storms on the roads, those sort of things.' Coppess said 'every dollar that goes out the door' should have the priority focus of: 'Are we helping farmers deal with risk issues in farming that matter to the food supply?' Coppess said such an approach would require recalibrating crop insurance, repurposing subsidy funds for conservation and refocusing conservation funds on risk-based priorities; something he said wouldn't be easy and is 'a little idealistic for what we've seen in Congress recently.' Legislators need to focus more on how to address the long-term challenges faced by farmers, he said. 'Problem is that's not the conversation we're having,' Coppess said.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
New study targets past flooding as key to helping property owners assess climate threats
The number of structures at risk of flooding in the United States could be higher than previously thought, according to a study published Monday. The study, published Monday in the journal Earth's Future, found that 43% of flooded buildings in North Carolina between 1996 and 2020 were located outside the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Special Flood Hazard Area — areas that FEMA projects have a 1% risk of flooding in a given year. The findings could help more communities get a better handle on their flood risk and flood insurance needs, experts and authors of the study said. Flood insurance has become increasingly hard to get as some companies increase the price of policies or step back from insuring homes in certain markets due to more frequent and severe weather. That has left property owners more vulnerable. Experts told NBC News that with access to the right data sources, databases like the one described in the study could be developed nationwide. FEMA's maps are the main source nationally to identify flood-prone areas and what structures need to be insured. But experts say the system is outdated and has low resolution. The 100-year flood plain projection doesn't paint a complete picture of what areas are likely to flood. And climate change has rendered previously authoritative weather and climate projections less reliable, the authors noted. The study's use of address-level data allowed the researchers to pinpoint specific buildings that had flooded more than once. That information could help property owners know whether they should be purchasing flood insurance even outside of FEMA's flood hazard zones, experts said. In the U.S., 99% of counties have flooded at least once but only 4% of homeowners have flood insurance, according to FEMA. 'More information about where it has flooded in the past could help people make different decisions,' said Helena Margaret Garcia, the lead author of the study and a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program did not return requests for comment. FEMA is currently in the process of redeveloping its flood mapping system, through an initiative called the Future of Flood Risk Data, that it says will provide a more comprehensive look at flood hazards and risks in the country using more efficient, accurate and consistent technology. As the planet warms, heavier rainfall is becoming more common because hotter air can hold more moisture, which later falls as rain. Climate change is also leading to a rise in global sea levels, which has made coastal and even some inland areas more vulnerable to flooding. Hurricane Helene, the third-deadliest hurricane of the modern era, caused severe flooding in mountainous areas in the middle of North Carolina. Damage totaled more than $78 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Severe rainfall has caused flash floods to rip through towns across the U.S. in the last two weeks, most recently on Monday in New Jersey and New York City. Extreme floods resulted in at least six deaths in North Carolina and more than 100 deaths in Texas. Flash floods are the top storm-related killer in the U.S. resulting in an average of 125 deaths per year in the last few decades, according to the National Weather Service A North Carolina climatologist said warmer ocean waters, which also feed storms, could have been a factor in fueling last week's Tropical Storm Chantal, which broke rainfall and river-crest records in the state. With the changing climate, having access to up-to-date maps is crucial, experts say. For the study, researchers mapped 78 flood events between 1996 and 2020 using data from the National Flood Insurance Program — the FEMA program through which property owners can purchase insurance for potential flood-related losses. They also used emergency service requests and 'volunteered geographic information,' which they acquired through social media posts, to create what they describe as a 'first of its kind' database. Data on past floods is often difficult for the general public to access, which can make it challenging for homeowners to know whether their property has previously flooded, experts said. Garcia said researchers can use the same methods from the study to create similar historical maps for regions across the nation to help officials identify areas in their state they may not have previously thought of as a flood risk. While the study found that only 20,000 of the 90,000 buildings flooded more than once — more than double the number of buildings that filed NFIP claims — authors of the study are working on research to quantify its human impact. Some are looking at health outcomes, including how a flood might interrupt people's health care, and others looking into the quantity of displacement due to the repetitive flooding, Garcia said. Antonia Sebastian, an assistant professor in the department of geological sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill, said the study aims to create a 'comprehensive record of past flooding' by gathering data on flood events that don't make the biggest headlines but still have an impact on homeowners. 'Places that have flooded before will flood again. It's just a matter of time,' Sebastian said. 'And those are all risky places.' Chad Berginnis, the executive director of the Association of Flood Plain Managers who wasn't involved in the study, said FEMA's maps are designed to implement the NFIP by determining what areas have to purchase flood insurance, using the 100-year flood plain as a guide. He said the study's analysis of historical flooding highlights that officials may need to require flood insurance in areas outside of FEMA's flood hazard zone. 'FEMA flood maps are a starting point and not an end point,' Berginnis said. 'They will show you one kind of flood risk, but if you want a total perception of flood risk, one of the things you got to do is find historical flood information.' He said replicating similar database models as the one described in the study in other local areas could help flood plain managers increase awareness among their communities about who is at risk of flooding by pinpointing where it has occurred previously. 'Just given the flood history of [the Guadalupe River], and having a daughter of the age that's going to camps too, I mean, this is really hitting home to me. You know, how is it that we, that societally, we're not comprehending that these same locations can also be very risky areas and not either demanding or finding out a little bit more about it. So, I think clearly we don't have enough awareness of flood risks.' June Choi, a doctoral student in earth system science at Stanford University who was not part of the study, said the finding that many flooded buildings were located outside of at-risk areas designated by FEMA's flood maps is likely the case across all states. The new database may be limited because it doesn't factor in how building density changes over time. But its use of historical records and address-specific data still make it a valuable resource for assessing future flood risk, she said. This article was originally published on
