World cities are sinking say scientists

Some of the world's largest and busiest coastal cities are sinking, according to scientists.

Scientists say world cities are sinking

Gilles Erkens from the Deltares Research Institute said New Orleans, Bangkok and Jakarta could eventually sink below sea level unless action is taken.

It's well known that sea levels is rising, but in some cities the ground is sinking too.

Bangkok experienced flooding in 2011

In some areas land is sinking ten times faster than the sea level is rising.

North Jakarta in Indonesia has sunk four metres in the last 35 years.

Scientists use satellites to measure whether the ground is sinking. They can see changes as small as 1mm.

In some areas the ground sinks naturally but in this case one of the main reasons is manmade.

Some cities pump water from under the ground to use for drinking water. This can cause the land above it to sink.

How do you stop a city sinking?

Dr Gilles Erkens who worked on the study said: "The most rigorous solution and the best one is to stop pumping groundwater for drinking water."

The city of Tokyo sank two metres before water pumping there was stopped.

Countries who want to follow Tokyo's example would need to find a new way of sourcing drinking water. That's not always easy to do.

From CBBC newsround

Malta criticised for mass shooting of migratory birds

A leading British naturalist has accused the Maltese authorities of failing to prevent large-scale illegal shooting of migratory birds by hunters.

Maltese hunters can shoot turtle doves legally

Chris Packham, who is in Malta, said rare species were being targeted, and hunters were even shooting Montagu's harrier birds on the ground at night.

"It's a desperate situation," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

A Maltese wildlife official insisted that patrols to stop illegal hunting had been stepped up.

Malta has an exemption from the EU Birds Directive, allowing its hunters to shoot turtle doves and quail during the spring migration, a crucial stage in the birds' life cycle. But according to Mr Packham, turtle doves were vulnerable, with their numbers down by 95% in the UK.

Malta is the only EU country to have a recreational spring hunting season allowing birds to be shot.

Mr Packham, a presenter of TV documentaries on wildlife, said Maltese hunters were ignoring restrictions under the exemption, or "derogation" in EU jargon. He said they were killing many other birds which are supposed to be protected.

He is in Malta with the conservation group Birdlife Malta to draw attention to the annual spring shoot, which has been criticised by environmentalists for years.

"Yesterday I'm afraid to say I had a dead swift in my hand that had been illegally shot and also a dead little bittern," Mr Packham told Today.

Sergei Golovkin, head of Malta's Wild Birds Regulation Unit, insisted that the authorities were controlling the hunters.

He said enforcement of the restrictions had "improved dramatically in the last few years". Malta has "the highest ratio in Europe" of enforcement staff deployed against illegal hunting, he told Today.

Thirty-three MEPs have jointly lobbied the European Comission to put pressure on Malta over the hunting exemption. A British Liberal Democrat MEP, Catherine Bearder, says the EU must "stop Malta from breaking EU rules, by systematically failing to apply the derogation correctly".

From BBC News-Sci/Environment

Caged birds are kept to attract wild birds for shooting in Malta. Photograph: Chris Howes/Alamy

Steve Micklewright, executive director of BirdLife Malta, said: "The birds flying from Africa to northern Europe in the spring are the strong birds. They've survived the winter. If we don't allow these birds to breed, their populations stand no chance of recovery."

From The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/20/conservationists-marksmen-malta-bird-hunt