Credit: Alexander Kaiser, pooliestudios.com
We all want to travel the world, see new
places, get inspired by their heritage, biodiversity, or whatever it is that
breathes splendour into their DNA. While
we may often fantasise about a perfect carefree life spent mostly on travel,
there are always constraints holding us back. As we try our best to reassure
ourselves, we keep making false promises that we’ll commit to our travel plans
right after this project, or that milestone. Next year; there’s always next
year.
But what if next year, your travel
destination no longer exists? Or the world mourns the loss of one of its oldest
heritage sites?
As we approach a new year, many of us like to stop and contemplate our lives and the paths we’re treading, readjusting our navigation as we rearrange our priorities. This year, you may want to put these seven destinations at the top of your travel list. Soon, some of them may no longer be there to visit.
1. Mount Kilimanjaro
Camping on Shira Plateu, Mt Kilimanjaro. Credit: Eric Andrews. Source: Flickr
Standing tall at 5,895m above sea level,
Mt. Kilimanjaro is a popular destination for adventure travellers who seek to
taste the glory of standing on the highest summit in Africa. Trekking from the
foothill of Mt. Kili to its summit is a journey that takes you through six
ecological systems, starting with cultivated land and ending with the arctic
summit. However, it’s become a controversial question whether the summit will
remain arctic for long.
According to a 2009 article published in the
journal Nature, the Kilimanjaro glaciers – estimated to be around 11,700
years old – covered (at the time of publishing) only 15% of the area they used
to cover in 1912.
With plenty of controversy surrounding the loss of ice on Mt. Kili – mostly to sublimation rather than melting – and not enough data to analyse the situation, some claim that within a couple of decades, there may no longer be any ice atop the highest summit in Africa.
2. Amazon
Brazilian Amazon forest. Source: Wikimedia
Known as the lungs of the planet, the
Amazon, which spans 6.7 million km2, is regarded the world’s largest rainforest.
This 55 million-year old biome is an open museum for at least 10% of the
world’s biodiversity, parading nature’s splendour of fish, flora and fauna –
some of which exist nowhere else on Earth, while others still lurk around undiscovered.
Due to deforestation, overconsumption, and
global warming, the Amazon and all of its riches are in grave danger. In the past
50 years alone, the Amazon has lost 17% of its forest cover. Not only has this
forced some of the Amazonian inhabitants that have the luxury of movement to
relocate, it jeopardizes the entire ecosystem due its major impact on the
global climate.
Researchers predict that even if the carbon emissions and deforestation are cut down, maintaining the optimistic 2C climate limit, we will still lose 20-40% of the rainforest within 100 years. Even worse, if the limit culminates to 4C, the Amazon will probably lose 85% of its rainforest.
3. Venice
Venice's grand canal. Source: Maxpixel
Could the Floating City soon become an
underwater city? Famous for its network of canals that run through 118 small
islands connected by 400 bridges, Italy’s Venice is among the highly
jeopardised, potential victims of global warming.
According to a report
published in Quarternary International, around 5,500km2 of coastal plains – 283km2
of which along the north Adriatic coast and western parts of Italy – are
expected to be completely
flooded by 2100.
Since 1880 when the global sea levels were first recorded, they have risen by 20cm. By 2100 if the carbon footprint is not curbed and the arctic continues to melt, the global sea levels are expected to rise by almost 2m by 2100 and, even more alarmingly, more than 15m by 2500. If that happens, Venice will no longer exist outside history books.
4. Maldives
Addu Atoll, Maldives. Credit: Mark Hodson/ 101 Holidays. Source: Flickr
Facing a similar threat as Venice is the
famous archipelago of 1,200 coral islands in the Indian Ocean, the idyllic Maldives.
At an average height of 1.2m, and the highest point at 2.4m, the country is considered the flattest and lowest in the world. While this may casually pass as just another fact for a country that lies on land mass, for the Maldives, this rings alarm bells for an inevitable fate of submersion.
5. Dead Sea
Traces of the Dead Sea's receding waters. Credit: Le Hollaender. Source: Pixabay
Nestled in the Jordan Rift Valley, the Dead
Sea – which isn’t actually a sea, but rather a salt late – is among the most
famous destinations in the Middle East. At 430m below sea level, the lake’s surface
and surrounding shores are marked as the lowest land elevation on Earth.
The Dead Sea derives its popularity from
its very high level of salinity – reaching up to almost 10 times the salinity
of the ocean –making it a therapeutic as well as fun destination for
vacationers.
Sadly though, the Dead Sea is shrinking at
a disturbing rate. Since the 1950s, the water level has dropped
by 40m. Resorts that were once at the brink of the salt lake are now at
least 2km away from the water.
Despite the rapid shrinkage of the water mass, the lake will not entirely disappear, one BBC article suggests. “As the level drops, the density and saltiness are rising and will eventually reach a point where the rate of evaporation will reach a kind of equilibrium,” the article reads. “So it might get a lot smaller, but it won't disappear entirely.”
6. Great Barrier Reef
Reef snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. Source: Wikimedia
Covering some 348,000km2 off the northeast
coast of Australia, the Great
Barrier Reef, home to around 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fish, and
1,500 type of mollusc, is an underwater wonderland for both divers and marine
scientists.
Despite being listed as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site in 1981, it has since then suffered four mass reef bleaching
events in 1998, 2002, 2016, and 2017 which were caused by underwater heat
waves.
In the aftermath of the 2016 episode, 22%
of the corals were entirely killed off, marking it as the worst ever damage
to the reef, while 95%
of the areas surveyed were found to have been bleached.
Research suggests that fast-growing coral
may take 10-15 years to regain its original status, while others may take up to
decades to recover. With two consecutive bleaching events, scientists worry
that a lot of corals may not survive the last wave.
Unless the water temperature is maintained within the optimum 23-29 degrees Celsius range, humanity may be slowly bidding this 500,000-year-old coral reef farewell.
7. The Alps
Standing on a high glacier at Aletsch Glacier, Fieschertal. Credit: Dino Reichmuth
Famous for their winter sports and posh skiing
resorts, the Alps, which stretch along 1,200km across Europe, covering
207,000km2, attract tens of millions of visitors each year. But with widely
permeating global warming effects,
In the past century, the Alps have lost
half of their ice volume, 20% of which has been lost since the mid-1980s – a
turning point that witnessed a notable acceleration in the rate of ice loss. While
rise in temperature by one degree Celsius causes the snowline to retreat
by 150m, the Alps have been subject to double that rate in the last
century. As a result, areas that saw snowfall now see rainfall instead.
Besides visible repercussions which can be
sensed across the Alpine tourism and bottled water industries, Nat Geo author
Erla Zwingle accentuates another problem. The mountains may be losing the glue
keeping them together: water.
“Water is what is literally holding the high mountains
together, and if the ice and permafrost begin to lose their grip, as is already
happening, the mountains start to crumble,” she notes. “Rock-falls, only an
occasional hazard in earlier times, are increasing, endangering communications
towers and radio installations, not to mention the occasional human.”
If conditions remain as they are, the Alps
could be losing up to 70%
of their ice volume by 2099, with the snowline receding to 1,000m higher. However,
if the greenhouse gas emissions are subdued to below two degrees Celsius, only
30% of the ice sheet would melt away.
