Areas That Are Dramatically Changing & Need Our Help

The Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Spanning more than 1,400 miles, the Great Barrier Reef, located off the northeast coast of Australia, is the largest coral reef system in the world. Replete with marine life, the reef draws millions of snorkelers and scuba divers each year. But rising ocean temperatures have caused coral bleaching in vast portions—a condition in which the coral turns white and is prone to mass die-offs. Following back-to-back bleaching incidents in 2016 and 2017, scientists report coral mortality rates in the range of 50 percent, meaning half the living corals have died from bleaching.

Venice, Italy

It’s impossible to walk the streets of Venice without being seduced by its anachronistic charm: the Adriatic Sea coursing through its canals, the romance of a gondolier’s serenade as you float beneath the Bridge of Sighs. In a place so at one with water, locals have come to expect flooding in Piazza San Marco and other parts of the low-lying city—but as ocean levels rise, Venice inches toward more serious inundation. Activists have taken on the challenge, investing in advanced flood gates and other technologies to stymie the impending swells. Artists have also taken a stand; in 2017, Italian artist Lorenzo Quinn created a massive sculpture of hands reaching out of the Grand Canal in an effort to draw attention to the sinking city.

Glacier National Park, Montana

Spread over a million acres in Montana on the U.S.-Canada border, Glacier National Park attracted some 3.3 million visitors in 2017. But as global temperatures rise, this pristine ecosystem, home to hundreds of species of animals and thousands of plants, is rapidly losing one of its main attractions: the very glaciers that give it its name. According to data released in May 2017 by the U.S. Geological Survey and Portland State University, since 1966, a warming climate has significantly reduced the size of 39 different glaciers in the park—the worst of which have seen reductions up to 85 percent. And the shrinkage shows no sign of slowing down, either. As the glaciers melt, entire ecosystems will be altered, and scientists predict there will be little ice left after a couple more decades—and none at all by the end of the century.

The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is shrinking at a rate of around four feet a year; the body of water has already lost one-third of its surface area since development in the region started earlier this century, and sinkholes are appearing in spots where the water has receded. Construction of dams, storage reservoirs, and pipelines over the years has reduced inflow water levels to just five percent of their original volume, and given that the Dead Sea’s minerals have been heralded as therapeutic, too, extraction on the part of cosmetic companies has also proved detrimental. Add that to the fact that the Middle East’s increasingly hot climate makes it difficult for the lake to replenish itself, and therein lies the problem: Experts estimate that if it continues to disappear at its present rate, the Dead Sea could be completely dry by 2050.

The Amazon

The largest rainforest on earth, the Amazon covers roughly 40 percent of South America. Here, travelers will find scarlet macaws and blue poison dart frogs living side-by-side with jaguars and brown-throated sloths in the wet broadleaf rainforest. Yet despite the Amazon’s size, climate change has made it a fragile habitat. Extreme droughts have left tree species throughout the tropical jungle parched, as a result, they’re vulnerable to large-scale dieback and more susceptible to forest fires. NASA reports that the Amazon’s trees will start to die if the area’s dry season lasts longer than 5-7 months—right now, the dry season clocks in at just a few weeks shy of that threshold.

Sources:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/slideshow/top-10-places-already-affected-by-climate-change/

https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/10-places-to-visit-before-theyre-lost-to-climate-change