From Yellowston to Aden Park, climate change is the majority of World Heritage sites at risk

Paris The United Nations Cultural Agency said on Tuesday that nearly three quarters of the world’s cultural and natural heritage sites are threatened by a few water or a lot of water. As a result of high temperatures, harsh weather events, including hurricanes, droughts, floods and heat waves, have become more frequent and intense.

UNESCO said that seventy-three percent of all non-naval sites, which number 1172 in the UNESCO Heritage List, are at least one risk of water-including water stress, drought, river flooding or coastal floods.

He added: “It is expected that water stress, the most prominent of which are in regions such as the Middle East and North Africa, and parts of South Asia and North China-are expected to be long-term risks to ecosystems, cultural heritage, societies and tourism economies that depend on them.”

The UNESCO study showed that cultural sites were commonly threatened by the scarcity of water, while more than half of the natural sites faced the danger of flooding from a nearby river.

In India, the study said that the monument of the Taj Mahal in Agra, for example, “faces the scarcity of water that increases pollution and exhausts groundwater, and both harm the shrine.”

In the United States, “in 2022, huge The flood closed all Yellowston National Park It costs more than $ 20 million in infrastructure reforms to reopen them. “

The report gave four other examples.

He added that the southern swamps in Iraq – the famous home of Aden Park – “face a very high stress, as more than 80 percent of renewable supplies are withdrawn to meet human demand.”

It is expected that the competition for water in the swamps will increase, as migratory birds and residents live raising buffalo, as the area is increasing more hot in the coming years.

On the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, Victoria Fouls-which was originally called Mosi-Ya-Twunya (“Smoke that was renamed by Scottish explorer David Levingstone-is frequently shifted and sometimes reduced to a decline.

UNICCO said the 1,000 -year -old Chan Chan and its 1,000 -year -old walls of Adobe walls face a very big risk of river floods.

In China, sea level rise driven in a large part of climate change leads to coastal floods, which destroys the consumption where migratory water birds find food.

Specific warning on floods and dehydration comes after a decade after independent Scientific study I found that 720 UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the Freedom and London Tower statue, It can be consumed by the rising seas Within 2000 years if the climate continues to warm the current rates.

The study calculated that 136 sites will be at risk if the average global temperatures rise to 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industry levels-a good number inside The expected range in the latest United Nations report On climate change, which expected that without significant changes in politics, there is 97 % probability of 2 degrees Celsius, and 37 % of 3 ° C.