The Earth Is Tilting Because of Humans – CleanTechnica

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This is a wild one. And it’s not even about climate change this time.

Apparently, humans are pumping so much groundwater out of the Earth that it’s making our planet tilt more.

So far, from this activity, the Earth has tilted 31½ inches.

While I said this wasn’t caused by climate change, it should be noted that this also has an effect on sea level rise, one of the biggest threats of continued, unmitigated climate change. “Pumping groundwater appears to have a greater consequence than ever previously thought. But now—thanks to a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters—we can see that, in less than two decades, Earth has tilted 31.5 inches as a result of pumping groundwater. This equates to.24 inches of sea level rise,” Popular Mechanics writes.

“With the Earth moving on a rotational pole, the distribution of water on the planet impacts distribution of mass. ‘Like adding a tiny bit of weight to a spinning top,’ authors say, ‘the Earth spins a little differently as water is moved around.’” Fascinating.

If you’re still confused what’s going on here, the short explanation is: we pump groundwater (a lot of it) out of the ground for irrigation and various other human uses, then that water eventually makes it into the ocean. Rapidly shifting where that water is shifts the title of the Earth.

“I’m very glad to find the unexplained cause of the rotation pole drift,” said Ki-Weon Seo, a geophysicist at Seoul National University. “On the other hand, as a resident of Earth and a father, I’m concerned and surprised to see that pumping groundwater is another source of sea-level rise.”

“Our study shows that among climate-related causes, the redistribution of groundwater actually has the largest impact on the drift of the rotational pole.”

Some people think humans simply can’t affect the essence of the Earth. They somehow see billions of humans doing all kinds of unnatural things and yet assume we can’t change the fundamental aspects of nature or disrupt what we all rely on for life and happiness. This news is another example that we can have huge influence on our natural surroundings, and even to the point of dramatically changing the world … and tilting it on its axis!