20 global landmarks that climate change may destroy
Published Oct 31, 2016 3:01 AM EDT
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Updated Nov 1, 2016 12:37 PM EDT
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Iconic landmarks and heritage sites hold extreme cultural and historic significance for communities around the globe. They hold meaning that goes deeper than their exterior; however, many of these treasured sites are currently threatened by the changing climate.
“Sea level rise, coastal erosion, increased flooding, heavy rains, and more frequent large wildfires are damaging archaeological resources, historic buildings, and cultural landscapes across the nation,” according to a 2014 report from UNESCO, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
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Organizations such as UNESCO and the National Trust for Historic Preservation are working to understand the immediate and long-term threats posed by climate change on these historic sites. In addition, they hope to preserve these vulnerable landmarks.
“Climate change presents a new normal for everybody,” Jeana Wiser, Associate Project Manager for the Preservation Green Lab, the research arm of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said.
“It presents new threats to landmarks everywhere, ranging from increased flooding events to increased wildfires. It presents new threats to these cultural, historic places that needs to be recognized,” Wiser said.
<section><h2>20 landmarks threatened by climate</h2></section><section><h2>Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (Buxton, North Carolina)</h2><p>
Sitting along the North Carolina Outer Banks, in the town of Buxton, The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was constructed to protect one of the most hazardous sections of the Atlantic Coast. The Gulf Stream collides with the Virginia Drift at this spot, which is often referred to as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. The lighthouse was authorized by Congress in 1794 and first lit in 1803; its 210-foot height makes it the tallest brick lighthouse structure in the United States.
In 1870, the lighthouse stood about 1,500 feet from the water on the shore of Cape Hatteras; but by 1999, rising sea levels had shrunk that distance to about 120 feet. The combination of sea level rise and beach erosion threaten to eventually bring the lighthouse crashing into the ocean. The National Park Service moved the lighthouse more than half a mile inland to avoid these threats in 1999. The lighthouse is currently safe from the sea, but many other shoreline structures are at risk due to similar threats.
</p></section><section><h3>Glacier National Park, Montana</h3><p>
Glacier National Park is located in northern Montana’s Rocky Mountains, encompassing over a million acres. It is a wilderness area with glacier-covered peaks and valleys. The park offers scenic wildlife and more than 700 miles of hiking trails.
The park held an estimated 150 glaciers in the mid-19th century. But by 2010, only 25 active glaciers remained. Scientists studying glaciers in the park estimate that glaciers in Montana's Glacier National Park will no longer exist if the current climate patterns persist and temperatures continue to rise, according to the New York Times.
</p></section><section><h3>Venice, Italy</h3><p>
A popular Italian tourist spot, Venice is located in northeastern Italy along the Mediterranean Sea. The city is made up of more than 100 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by bridges.
Largely as result of this distinctive feature, the city is prone to flooding events. The floods known as the "acqua alta," occur about four times every year, when the tides rise above a height of just over 43 inches. As sea levels rise over the next century, predicted between 1 to 3 feet globally, the city may experience these floods between 30 and 250 times a year, New Scientist Magazine reported.
Jamestown is the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America. Jamestown Island, an island that was torn apart from the mainland by a storm in the 18th century, lies 3 feet or less above the tidal James River.
Scientist predict that the island will likely be under underwater by the end of this 2100 due to rising sea levels. Previous hurricanes, such as Hurricane Isabel in 2003 and Hurricane Irene in 2011, severely damaged the sea walls and other structures. It unlikely that the historic site can withstand the impacts of climate change.
</p></section><section><h3>Gay Head Lighthouse (Aquinnah, Massachusetts)</h3><p>
Gay Head Lighthouse was the first lighthouse built on Martha's Vineyard. It was built in 1799 on Gay Head Cliff to alert ships of the dangerous area known as the Devil’s Bridge.
Due to sea level rise and beach erosion, it now stands between 50 to 60 feet away from the edge of the ocean. It loses about 2 feet of land every year to erosion, according to U.S. Trust for Historic Preservation. The lighthouse was dangerously close to toppling over in 2014, before being brought 129-feet inland to safety. The community is now looking to restore the historic lighthouse.
</p></section><section><h3>Everglades National Park, Florida</h3><p>
The Florida Everglades National Park is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, encompassing 1.5-million acres in southern Florida. The park provides an important landscape for many rare and endangered species.
Sea level rise, warming sea surface temperatures and saltwater intrusion into freshwater threaten the Florida Everglades. Sea level rise is causing the salinization of ground water and soils above, endangering plants and animals in the ecosystem. There is also a correlation between sea level rise and increase in water levels at some inland, freshwater sites. The reasoning behind this correlation and the impacts that it will have are still unclear, according to scientists.
The island of Kilwa Kisiwani is located in a large bay on the coast of Southern Tanzania. The island holds two important structures that date back to the 14th century. The first is the Great Mosque, which was once the largest mosque in sub-Saharan Africa. The palace at Husuni Kubwa, renowned for its spectacular pools and courtyards, also sits on the island.
Rising sea levels have played a significant role in the decades-long erosion. Conservation efforts led the World Heritage Committee to remove the mosque from the List of World Heritage in Danger due to the improved management and safeguarding of the site. However, the site is still at risk.
</p></section><section><h3>The Statue of Liberty (New York, New York)</h3><p>
“The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World” was a gift of friendship to America from France and is recognized as a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. Lady Liberty stands tall amidst the Hudson River, as an iconic sight and New York City.
Climate change impacts, such as sea level rise, storm surge, and increased intensity of storms are putting the landmark at risk, according to UNESCO. Although the statue remained unharmed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, 75 percent of Liberty Island inundated floodwater closed the site for nine months.
</p></section><section><h3>The Ulysses S. Grant Memorial (Washington, D.C.)</h3><p>
The Ulysses S. Grant Memorial is a presidential memorial located across the street from the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
The memorial is a prime example of the negative effects that acid rain has on bronze. The rise of atmospheric pollution has increased the occurrence of acid rain.According to the National Park Service, wax is applied to the monument at least once a year to protect and preserve the metal.
The Acropolis of Athens is located atop a flat rock rising 150 meters above the city. It contains three hectares of standing monuments from the Classic Periclean period (460-430 BCE) include the Parthenon, the Propylea, and the Erechtheum, as well as a few earlier Mycenean edifices such as the Cyclopean Circuit Wall that helped to defend the Acropolis from numerous invasions over the centuries.
Greece has experienced substantial expansion. Pollutants and heavy vehicle emissions from the booming modern city of Athens have contributed to an increase in acid rain. The pollution is destroying the structural, sculptural and painting details of monuments on the Acropolis.
The Great Barrier Reef spans over 130,000 square miles off the coast of Queensland in northeastern Australia, and is composed of a string of more than 2,900 reefs and some 900 islands. It contains the world’s largest collection of with coral reefs, including 400 types of coral and 1,500 species of fish, according to UNESCO.
The Great Barrier Reef is being threatened by the changing climate including, warming ocean temperatures, increasingly acidic ocean waters and the phenomenon known as El Niño–Southern Oscillation. More than half of the Great Barrier Reef's coral cover has been permanently lost due to storms, predatory starfish and mass coral bleaching events linked to climate change, according to a 2012 report by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
</p></section><section><h3>Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida Keys</h3><p>
Dry Tortugas National Park lies about 70 miles west of Key West. The park is mainly open water with seven small islands. It is known for its inclusion of Fort Jefferson, built in 1847, and long referred to as "the guardian of the Gulf." Fort Jefferson was constructed to protect shipping access to the Gulf of Mexico and later served as a military prison during the Civil War.
The park is currently at risk due to hurricanes and rising sea levels associated with climate change, according to the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training. Fort Jefferson lies at almost exactly sea level making it exceptionally vulnerable to sea level rise.
</p></section><section><h3>Joshua Tree National Park, California</h3><p>
Two distinct desert ecosystems, the Mojave and the Colorado, come together in Joshua Tree National Park, a 1,235-square-mile park in southeastern California. It is named for the regions twisted Joshua trees that find enough water to thrive in the dry Southwestern desert for thousands of years, conditions few other plant species could tolerate.
Joshua trees require specific conditions in order to survive. Rising temperatures over the past century have had a dramatic impact on the number of trees that are able to survive there. Based on climate models using 3-degree Celsius increase, scientists predict that 90 percent of the current range of Joshua trees may disappear by the end of the century.
</p></section><section><h3>San Francisco Embarcadero, California</h3><p>
The embarcadero in San Francisco is the historic interface between San Francisco and its bay. It is a major economic engine for the bay area. It hosts a variety of maritime uses and serves as the region’s ferry hub, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The National Trust listed the embarcadero in its 2016 list of the 11 most endangered historic places. Sea level rise and earthquakes pose a dual threat to the district. The port of San Francisco anticipates a rise in sea level up to 66 inches by 2100, according to the 2012 National Research Council Report. Sea-level rise will dramatically exacerbate threat of harsh marine environment on the Embarcadero’s buildings. A recent earthquake vulnerability study of the Embarcadero’s historic 3-mile long seawall revealed greater than expected risk to the structure.
The city of New Orleans sits along the Mississippi River, near the Gulf of Mexico. The city is widely known for its wild nightlife, vibrant music (birthplace of jazz), festive spirit, unique cuisine, and annual celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras.
New Orleans is especially vulnerable to climate change due to its low elevation, land subsidence rates, sea level rise and prediction of more intense hurricanes. Widely a result of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005, the city has developed a flood plan to protect the city, according to the 2011 National ResourcesDefense Council.
</p></section><section><h3>Tangier Island, Virginia</h3><p>
Tangier Island is a unique island located in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. For many years Tangier was the hunting and fishing grounds of the Pocomoke Indians, evidenced by thousands of arrowheads and Native American relics. It is currently populated by 650 people with its own school district, airport and medical center.
The combined effects of sinking land and rising seas have resulted in a rate of sea level rise that is twice the world average and poses serious threats on the historic island. The island has experienced more flooding events due to recent rising sea levels and increasing storm surges, according to the National Trust Fund for Historic Preservation.
Founded in 1630, Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The city is rich with American history and culture, and is full of historical landmarks and buildings.
Boston is threatened equally by land subsidence and sea level rise. The relative sea level has risen about 10 inches over the past century, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA). Projections estimate that sea level rise for Boston range from two feet to six feet by the end of the century.
</p></section><section><h3>Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana</h3><p>
Isle de Jean Charlies lies about 50 miles south of New Orleans, once covered 15,000 acres, but has eroded to a tiny strip according to a report by Northern Arizona University. The tiny island is inhabited by the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw (IJC) tribe; they have resided on the island since their ancestors settled there to avoid forced relocation under the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
The island is at serious threat as a result of accelerating sea level rise, salt water intrusion and subsidence of the land. These threats have caused devastating erosion and flooding, and it is being exacerbated further by regional oil and gas development and the shipping industry, according to US/ ICOMOS.
</p></section><section><h3>Farnsworth House (Plato, Illinois)</h3><p>
The Farnsworth House was designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1945 and constructed in 1951. It is an exemplary representation of both the International Style and Modern Style of architecture. The significance of the Farnsworth House was recognized even before it was built, and remains as an Illinois landmark.
Increased urbanization, storm water runoff and rising water levels in the nearby Fox River have been threatening the Farnsworth House. Since 1954, two feet of water inundated the interior of the house. Recently flood events have become more frequent and more severe, threatening the integrity of the house, according to The National Trust For Historic Preservation.
Annapolis is the capital of Maryland, situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River. The historic seaport town's rich history drives tourism and new businesses.
Similarly to many seaport towns, Annapolis is also impacted by regular flooding. Flooding events have dramatically increased due to recent rising sea levels and increasing storm surges. “In the Chesapeake Bay, the combined effects of sinking land and rising seas have resulted in a rate of sea level rise that is twice the world average and poses an even greater danger to Annapolis and its historic resources,” according to the National Trust Fund for Historic Preservation.
