by Kevin Schofield

We hear a lot these days about sea level rise spurred by climate change: The seas are rising, and that poses existential risks for coastal areas. What we don’t hear about — and what many people aren’t even aware is a real thing — is the rise and fall of the land. But drops in land elevation, known as “subsidence,” are very much real and affect large portions of the planet’s land masses, including in the United States. This weekend’s read is a report from scientists at Virginia Tech, United Nations University, and the U.S. Geological Survey on subsidence along the East Coast of the United States.