Several of the world's major cities are falling

In the summer of 2019, Indonesian President Joko Widodo decided to move the capital of Jakarta from the island of Java to Kalimantan on Borneo.

The reason is that Jakarta is declining as global sea levels rise. In ten years the city has dropped 2.5 meters and half the city is already below sea level.

At the same time, the global sea level is rising on average 3 millimeters per year. In some parts of Asia it goes even faster, up to 8 millimeters per year.

Jakarta is not alone. Several major coastal cities built in the Delta, such as New York City, Manila, Bangkok, London and Osaka, have similar problems.

Several of the cities are built in the delta on soft land, and over-utilization of the groundwater has meant that the land has begun to settle.

Jakarta is one of the fastest sinking cities in the world. Parts of the millionth city have already disappeared beneath the surface and if it continues to decline at the same rate as now it will be submerged by 2050.

See the entire program "Earth's rising sea levels" on SVTplay.