FEATURE: Groundwater pumping contributes to sea level rise
When water is pumped from underground it is released back into the Earth’s hydrological cycle, ultimately contributing to sea level rise. Image: scienceimage The groundwater we pump to the surface for irrigation, drinking water, and industrial uses, doesn’t just seep back into the ground — it also evaporates into the atmosphere, or runs off into waterways, eventually emptying into the world’s oceans. In fact, a new study calculates that by 2050, groundwater pumping will cause a global sea level rise of about 0.8 millimetres per year.‘Other than ice on land, excessive groundwater extractions are fast becoming the most important terrestrial water contribution to sea level rise,’ says Yoshihide Wada, with Utrecht University in the Netherlands and lead author of the study.He adds that, in coming decades, groundwater contributions to sea level rise are expected to become as significant as those of melting glaciers and ice caps outside of Greenland and the Antarctic....