Comments on: We Pump Water From Underground. It Flows to the Ocean. The Oceans Are Getting Deeper.

By: Susan Courtnay

Susan Courtnay — Thu, 31 May 2012 22:08:40 +0000

Ground water is being depleted in most of the US at an astounding rate. We farm in southern Idaho where irrigation is king, most irrigation is from ground water pumping. Many of the wells in our area have gone dry. Our own domestic well has dropped about 25 feet in the past 15 years. Part of this is attributable to a change in irrigation practices. Flooding fields to irrigate them also helped to replenish ground water sources, but also caused much run off of water plus topsoil and chemicals. Most of our area farmers have gone to sprinkler irrigation, which saves water, but doesn’t contribute to replenishing ground water. Our winters have gotten drier (hard to tell if this is cyclic drought, which is normal here, or a longer term change) so less snow melt to help recharge aquifers as well. Most large aquifers took millions of years to form, so recharging is probably not a realistic expectation. FYI, western Canada also uses a lot of irrigation for farming and is having the same problem with reduction of ground water.
Personally, I agree that population control is the overlooked answer to many of the worlds environmental problems. We cannot keep adding population when our resources are so finite. This should be a large part of the plan to reduce materials pollution in air, water and food sources.

By: Daniel J. Andrews

Daniel J. Andrews — Thu, 31 May 2012 02:23:16 +0000

Wow. You’d think rising ocean levels caused by continental drift would feature prominently in science journals and textbooks since it is “proven”. Maybe those articles are located next to the section where the philosophy of science has been switched to proving things, not disproving.

By: m

Tue, 29 May 2012 11:33:29 +0000

Here’s a clue

Archimedes Principal.

Still stuck – open a Grade 10 physics book

By: Brian Too

Brian Too — Fri, 25 May 2012 23:11:34 +0000

Then our course of action is clear. We must tow the land out to sea!

By: Iain

Iain — Fri, 25 May 2012 22:31:48 +0000

@10 m
Groundwater does get replaced, but not nearly as quickly as it’s being used up. For instance 100 years ago in many parts of Kansas wells were only about 25 feet deep. Today those wells are at least 125 feet deep and getting deeper.

By: Jiminy

Jiminy — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:38:25 +0000

It seems to me that some of the aquifers would be depleted before the sea level rose too much.

There is already concern about depletion of large aquifers in the USA because of farming, large human populations and the diversion of ground water, being prevented from going underground and replenishing the aquifers.

I don’t know about Africa, Asia or Europe, nor Canada.

I do know that while around here the byword is water conservation, especially during the summer when sources are being used up. We have almost no snow pack or glacier water sources, their all lakes. Some municipalities sink wells and continue to water heavily all summer. But I assume that here, the aquifer can be replenished in the winter because of extremely high rainfall levels, assuming there are ways for the water to get into the aquifer.

By: Tony Mach

Tony Mach — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:12:25 +0000

As far as I can tell, all studies show that the sea level rise of the past 100 years was constant until today at range of about 2.5 mm per year to 3.2 mm per year* (there is some uncertainty about the absolute rise) – no study I know of shows an acceleration of sea level rise (be my guest, prove me wrong). I’d imagine that groundwater use has sharply increased in the past 100 years (but have no data to back that up), so if this study is close to reality (of which I am not the least sure), this would mean that the contributions to sea level rise from melting ice and rising sea temperature are declining – food for thought.

* which would translate to something between 25 cm and 32 cm per century (100 years) – roughly a foot per century.

By: m

Thu, 24 May 2012 11:07:51 +0000

LMAO – you people are nuts.

It was ALREADY proven the change in sea levels is a result of continental drift.

This is just another study with a political agenda. The assumption of this study – and it is a huge one – is that underground water is not replenished.

Global warming – eeesh

hey – why roll back the clock of physics only 100 hears? Let’s roll it back even farther to when the earth was flat!!

Or better yet – let’s start branding people as witches because they can do long division.

ye haw

By: mike

mike — Thu, 24 May 2012 08:17:46 +0000

LOL 2012 and people still think global warming isn’t real

By: amphiox

amphiox — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:39:45 +0000

As AGW continues, drought conditions will increase as surface fresh water evaporates more rapidly. This will result in increase in use of underground reservoirs, which will result in increased sealevel rise.

So it is really academic to make a distinction about this relative to AGW. Even without such a direct link, it is still anthropogenic sea level rise both ways.