Fairfax - Penny Walker
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| Tourists looking out over panorama view of old town Dubrovnik. Photo: Shutterstock |
There are dozens of sites that are popular with tourists across the world that are at risk. Here are just a handful of them.
London
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| Photo: Shutterstock |
When the Thames Barrier was first used in 1984, it was predicted that
it would only be called upon two or three times a year. Today, we use
it around six to seven times a year, meaning that usage has almost
tripled in just 35 years. While
London is fairly far inland, it doesn't sit too far from the river mouth making it sensitive to tidal fluctuations.
Venice, Italy
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| Photo: ALASTAIR MILLER |
Probably the most obvious on the list, we already regularly see
images of people using elevated planks to cross St Mark's Square in the
winter months. There are genuine concerns that the city may not be
around for too much longer. Venice's buildings have been sinking –
albeit very slowly – into the Adriatic and rising sea levels will only
make things worse.
The situation is so bad that Venice features on the
World Monuments Fund (WMF) list of places under threat.
According to the WMF, cruise ships are only speeding up the process:
"The large cruise ships have had direct and indirect impacts on
flooding."
Maldives
Inevitably, small islands are some of the most at-risk areas when it
comes to rising sea levels. Throw in the fact that the Maldives is the
world's lowest lying nation (on average the islands are only 1.3 meters
above sea level) and you have a recipe for disaster. Should waters rise
as much as three feet, it would submerge the 1,200 islands enough to
make them uninhabitable.
Tropical islands
The Maldives is not alone in potentially being lost to the sea. There
are plenty of islands around the world that are destined to share a
similar fate. Projections include the loss of the Seychelles, low-lying
islands in the Solomons and Micronesia, Kiribati – about halfway between
Hawaii and Australia –the islands of the Torres Strait off the north
coast of Australia, Palau in the Philippines, the Carteret Islands in
the south-west Pacific Ocean and Tuvalu, as well as many more.
Magdalen Islands, Canada
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| Photo: Mathieu Dupuis |
It's not just tropical islands that are under threat. Sitting in the
Gulf of St Lawrence in Quebec, the Magdalen Islands' sandstone cliffs
are susceptible to erosion. As the Earth warms, the wall of sea ice that
protects the archipelago from the blustering winds and sea spray is
melting rapidly. With this last line of defence gone, it is likely that
the islands will erode even more quickly than their current rate of loss
– a massive 40 inches a year.
The North Pole
All this water has to be coming from somewhere, and much of it is
coming from the vast glaciers and icebergs of the Arctic and Antarctic.
The ice caps are melting so quickly in fact that it's believed that in
just a few generation's time, true magnetic north will no longer be
found on a chunk of sea ice, but above water. There will be no more
standing on the North Pole.
Polar bear spotting in the Arctic
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| Photo: AP |
The melting of the ice caps is also threatening the polar bear's
habitat and way of life. These strong carnivores use the ice to hunt
seals and burn through a whopping 12,325 calories a day. They are
completely dependent on being able hunt seals on firm ground. As the ice
reduces, so do the hunting grounds, leading to increasing reports of
polar bears dying of starvation.
Key West, Florida
Even before hurricane Irma hit the tailend of Florida back in 2017,
Key West was having problems with the environment. Rising seas and
warnings by the Army Corps of Engineers has encouraged the small city to
take drastic measures. They have invested one million dollars into
elevating their roads before they too become a permanent underwater
attraction.
Miami, Florida
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| Celebrity Edge cruise ship arrives in Miami. |
More than one of Florida's cities are under threat. King tides are
already surging over coastal defences to send water a couple of feet
high surging down Miami's streets – and the future is bleak. In fact, if
the Earth's temperature rises by as much as four degrees, 93 per cent
of the city's residents could find themselves displaced. Fort
Lauderdale to the north and the equally popular Everglades National Park
to the west are also at risk.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
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| The Ho Chi Minh City skyline and Saigon River. Photo: Shutterstock |
Set on the Saigon River, Ho Chi Minh City is more susceptible to
rising sea levels than other major tourist destinations according to
research. With just a 1.5 degree increase in temperature (billed as the
'best case scenario'), the city will suffer one of the greatest sea
level rises out of all the world's major cities at 3.1 metres. This
could see historic landmarks flooded and 29 per cent of the population
affected.
Bangladesh
Much like Venice, the plight of Bangladesh is not a new one. The
country already experiences floods that cover around a quarter of its
landmass every year and this only predicted to worsen with time.
Citizens here are already learning to adapt their way of life to combat
the change in their environment, with farmers using rafts to transfer
produce and agriculture when the waters rise.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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| Photo: Shutterstock |
The popular Brazilian city has been cited as one of the biggest
losers of rising sea levels. It has been speculated that should warming
continue at its current rate, the waters around the city could rise up
to 32 inches by 2100. Its popular beaches could be gone, along with its
airport. Fortunately, Christ the Redeemer is high enough to escape the
rising tide.
Alexandria, Egypt
Once the home of the most extensive library on Earth, today it's not
just the loss of knowledge that Alexandria laments, but the possibility
that more of its history will be swallowed by water. The city's beaches
could be submerged with as little as half a metre rise in sea levels and
as many as eight million people displaced. Coastal flooding could also
affect the Nile Delta and the towns and villages along its banks.
Pompeii, Italy
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| Photo: Shutterstock |
The residents of this Italian city once faced one of the worst
natural disasters in human history. Now it is under threat from the sea.
Dr Lena Reimann, of the coastal risks and sea level research group at
Keil recently said that: ""Pompeii is at low to moderate risk from
coastal erosion and erosion risk may increase by up to 16 per cent under
the high-end sea-level rise scenarios until 2100".
Ancient Mediterranean sites
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| Tourists at a viewpoint on Srd hill looking at Dubrovnik panorama in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Photo: Shutterstock |
It's not just Pompeii that is under threat in the Mediterranean. The
Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia in Italy is also at risk as storm
surges threaten the 5th Century city, much of which has not yet been
excavated. Increasing water levels also threaten Herculaneum, Istanbul
and Dubrovnik, as well as the kasbah at Algiers, the Medieval city
of Rhodes and the archaeological site of Carthage.
Osaka, Japan
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| Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK |
According to new data, the high risk level posed to Osaka could
affect as many as 5.2 million people. Like much of the rest of the
country, the city employs the use of seawalls to protect its shore. But
there is only so long that this can work. The thriving Japanese city
could soon be lost to the sea.
Bangkok, Thailand
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| Photo: Shutterstock |
Asian cities really have drawn a bad hand here, with many of them
likely to be significantly affected by rising sea levels. Even if the
Earth warms towards the more conservative end of projections – around
two degrees by 2100 – 42 per cent of this hugely popular tourist
destination's inhabitants will be displaced with waters projected to
rise by 4.9 metres, flooding much of Bangkok.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
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| Houseboats in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Photo: Shutterstock |
Things aren't looking good for the popular European city considering
that parts of it are already four metres below sea level. While the
Netherlands' capital isn't too worried just yet thanks to its series of
innovative dykes and dams, research shows that should the Earth's
temperature warm by four degrees, the sea level around Amsterdam could
rise by a whopping 7.6 metres, potentially displacing as much as 98 per
cent of the city's population.
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