The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Erosion ‘threatens Skara Brae’
Some of the world’s most famous heritage sites from the Statue of Liberty and the city of Venice to the Galapagos Islands are threatened by climate change, a report has warned.
Historic and natural World Heritage sites are already feeling the brunt of increasing temperatures, with rising seas, erosion and storms hitting Orkney’s Neolithic coastal treasures and important tropical coral reefs which are “bleached” by warmer seas.
Other sites, such as the world-famous Stonehenge and Avebury Stone Age monuments in Wiltshire, are set to see the effects of global warming in changes to wildlife and its impacts on the landscape and the risk of more intense rainfall and flash flooding.
There is an “urgent and clear” need to limit temperature rises to protect key heritage, according to the study by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), UN heritage body Unesco and the United Nations Environment Programme.
It looked at 31 natural and cultural World Heritage sites in 29 countries which are vulnerable to increasing temperatures, melting glaciers, rising seas, more intense weather, worsening droughts and longer wildfire seasons. Climate change will, or is already, exacerbating problems faced by some of the world’s most famous and popular heritage sites, such as the Galapagos Islands.
Threats to the unique wildlife caused by 205,000 visitors a year, invasive species and illegal fishing are now being joined by rising seas, warming and more acidic oceans and extreme weather.
More severe problems threaten the heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage site, where many archaeological sites are on the coast due to the importance of the sea in Stone Age life, and at least half are under threat from coastal erosion.
Five-thousand-year-old Skara Brae, the best-preserved Stone Age dwelling complex in western Europe with houses and stone furniture, is the most highprofile site at risk of eventual loss of coastal erosion, the study said.
Lead author of the report and deputy director of the climate and energy programme at UCS, Adam Markham, said: “Orkney and the whole of Scotland is the ‘poster child’ for eroding archaeology sites.
“There are thousands of them and many of them are being lost to coastal erosion and storms.
“If sea levels rise and storms get worse because of global warming then we
“We will lose huge amounts of British heritage directly into the sea”
are going to be losing huge amounts of British heritage directly into the sea,” he warned. He went on: “The report is representative of the kind of threats these iconic places are experiencing, some are in direct and immediate danger. At every one of these sites we can see the impacts of climate change already.”