Global warning

Melting glaciers. Eroding monuments. Vanishing beaches. Starving polar bears. There seems to be no escape from global warming horror stories.

Mount Kilimanjaro
Eastern Tanzania

The snows Hemingway famously wrote about on Africa’s highest peak could become more famous for their disappearance by 2020. Some say it’s lack of snowfall, not global warming. Either way, Kilimanjaro — like Mount Everest and its melting glaciers — has become a poster mountain for activists.

Scott’s Hut
Ross Island, Antarctica

British adventurer Robert F Scott’s hut, one of the few buildings that remain from when the continent was being explored, is in imminent danger of collapse. The cause: “unprecedented snow and ice build-up” attributed to climate change.

Maldives
Indian Ocean

Story continues below this ad

The Maldives are for the most part no more than 39 inches above mean sea level. A rise in sea level — upto a quarter-inch a year — spells disaster. At this rate, the Maldives could be uninhabitable in 100 years.

Leh Old Town
Ladakh region, India

The 200-odd stone, mud and timber buildings, some dating to the 15th century, are increasingly vulnerable to heavy rains and run-off from the Himalayas’ melting glaciers.

The Outer Banks
Northeast North Carolina

With the sea level on the rise, the 130-mile-long chain of barrier islands is in danger of breaking up into smaller parts if a hurricane with the power of Katrina should hit.

Chan Chan Archaeological Zone
Northern Peru

The heavy rains, flooding and winds generated by El Nino in 1998 caused significant erosion in the sprawling complex of palace compounds.

Glacier National Park
Northwestern Montana

Story continues below this ad

The park’s glaciers have shrunk to the point that, based on the rise in global temperatures to date, all glaciers in the million-acre park are predicted to disappear as soon as 2030.

Tower of London
Thames (North Bank)

With predictions for heavier rainfall and higher humidity over the next quarter-century, the tower complex, begun in 1078 by William the Conqueror, could be eroded by rising water levels in the Thames estuary.

Arctic Polar Bears
Cape Churchill, Manitoba, Hudson Bay

Dwindling ice floes mean less hunting territory for the world’s biggest terrestrial carnivore. The Hudson Bay polar bear population has fallen 17 per cent in the past decade.

Great Barrier Reef
Australia

Increasingly frequent bleaching episodes, in which corals turn white and may die, due to rising sea temperatures. A full 50 per cent of the world’s coral reefs are believed to be threatened.