Jakarta is sinking into the sea. In 2030, it will be the world’s most populous city, surpassing Tokyo, and by 2050 it will also probably be largely underwater. Already, at least 20% of the city sags below sea level. Swipe left 1) A section of Jakarta’s sea wall, it is sinking at a rate of 6.7 inches per year. 2) Children play on top of a secondary wall that separates seawater from shops and homes. 3) Heri Andreas. He stands in front of the secondary sea wall where he and his professor confirmed Jakarta was dramatically sinking in the late 90s. 4) KRL commuter line, the city is infamous for its congested roads and public transportation. 5) The new city will be built in an established logging region where eucalyptus trees are grown. 6) A new bridge will become an access road for the new capital. 7) The waterfall in a conservation forest that is a potential water source for the city. 8) A road snakes through the site for the new capital. The Indonesian capital is not alone in this regard, of course. From the megacities of Asia to the U.S. Eastern Seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico, coastal cities around the world are in jeopardy. The primary danger is not the changing climate, although that is a grave threat, too, but a potent yet lesser-known peril called subsidence, in which the combined forces of urbanisation and plate tectonics push these vulnerable metropolises into the ocean. When you combine subsidence with climate change, you get a probably irreversible coming blow to the dwellings, workplaces, and towns of some 1 billion people, about 13% of the world’s population. But no place is sinking faster than Indonesia’s capital, and no country is confronting the threat so directly. A year ago, the city’s predicament led President Joko Widodo to a radical thought: He would outright pick up and move the capital, along with 7 million people, about a fifth of the population of Metropolitan Jakarta. It will be by far the largest such exodus in modern history and the first to be triggered by our era’s multiple environmental crises. Text: Steve Levine. Story link via my website in bio - Saving Sinking Jakarta. #climatechange #jakarta #indonesia #sinkingcities #medium https://www.instagram.com/p/CErOUb_gfGC/?igshid=1e2spndq0epjw
