Places To Visit Before They Disappear

In a not so distant future global warming and high sea levels could wipe some of the most significant cultural sites. So grab your backpack and start visiting them, while you can.

1. As the birthplace of Olympic Games, the Valley of Olympia is located on the Peloponnese Peninsula, south of Greek. In recent years, the extremely dry heat weather has resulted in a series of volcanic eruptions. In 2007, fire swept and severely damaged this area. Fortunately, all the relics remained intact.

2. The convenient geographical position makes Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, become the commercial center of 12th century. At present, the rising sea level is threatening the existence of this ancient city. Engineers and architects try to reduce the flood risk caused by some underground projects, such as subways. However, if they want to rescue the historical urban area, more sea coast protection seems to be inevitable.

3. About half of Rotterdam city is lower than the sea level. For centuries, this important seaport in Netherlands depends on the dykes and dams to avoid the invasion of sea water. At the end of 1990s, a storm surge barrier Maeslantkering, which can resist the circumstance when the sea level rises up to 4.88m, was constructed to protect the city. However, it can not solve all problems under the frequent shifts in climate.

4. Waddenzee in Denmark is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. Visitors swarm into here to experience the interesting “Mudflat hiking”. The earth’s surface of this area is formed by sea water and wind force, and then destroyed to reform new deposit sediments. If the acceleration of sea level rising is beyond the expectation, there will be lack of sediments to remodeling the earth.

5. Surrounded by fruitful olives and green grass, Zahara de la Sierra is a small town in the hills of Andalusia, Southern Spain. As the famous one of the “pueblos blancos” (gathered villages of Indians), this silent village has a nickname “white towns”, because the overwhelming majority of the buildings are white. Olive is the most important crop in that area. The rising temperature and increasingly reduction of rainfall might cause desertification of this beautiful land.

6. For hundred years, the Thames River is always the main stream of London. Since the early stage of Middle Ages, the London city started to expanding to the river bank, which makes the watercourse narrower and narrower. Until 1983, the local government built the Thames Barrier. The flood sweeping London every year has just been controlled. But facing the rising sea level, this could be not enough.

7. Lucedio Abbey is a twelfth-century former Cistercian foundation near Trino, north-west Italy. It played an important role in the development of rice production in the region. This area is now called Principato di Lucedio, namely the princely estate of Lucedio. Due to the heavy dependence on water, the predictable glacier melting on Alps and the declining of rainfall would threaten the rice production.

8. The Archipelago Sea in Finland comprises about 40,000 islands. This sea area is suffering from the progress of eutrophication, which means the pollution stimulates the excessive growth of algae. The resulting lack of oxygen in water will harm the wild marine life. The global climate change may intensify the eutrophication and hence to damage the biodiversity.

9. Lake Balaton of Hungary, often affectionately called the “Hungarian Sea”, is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of Hungary’s foremost tourist destinations. It lies among the volcanic hills in the western Hungary and stretches nearly 77 kms. But in recent years, the rising temperature and the reduction of rainfall has already caused the shrinkage of the lake. If this tendency went on, most of the lake area would finally dry up.

10. Dalarna, the central province of Sweden, is a popular vacation destination for the Swedes. A new record-breaking trees was discovered here in 2004 when Swedish researchers were carrying out a census of tree species. Most of the trees here are spruces which are the main raw material for Swedish papermaking industry. Bur the increasingly grim situation of global warming and the decrease of precipitation in the summer may cut down the amount of spruces.

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