These tourist treasures will disappear as sea levels rise

By 2050, “seas will rise by one meter”, experts from the IPCC warn. It can overwhelm the cities that form the heritage of humanity.

Rising water is “irreversible”. Emissions are the alarming finding of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). And of course, the higher the degree, the more disastrous the consequences. The 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), which begins in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on November 6, will be an opportunity to address issues related to climate change and find solutions to ensure that humanity’s treasures do not disappear.

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The city of Alexandria at the time of the loan

Alexandria, a land of history and traces of the past, is under threat today. Every year, the Egyptian city sinks by 3 millimeters. In the Nile Delta, the sea has already advanced three kilometers inland since the 1960s. The Rosette Lighthouse, built at the end of the 19th century, was swallowed by the water. It is now the fortress of Gidebe, built in the 15th century on the site of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which disappeared in antiquity, and is in the foreground.

Drainage of roads, reed belts, concrete barriers… the city tries to protect itself to avoid being swallowed up. But in the best-case scenario, if the Mediterranean Sea rises only 50 centimeters, “30% of Alexandria would be flooded, 1.5 million or more people would be displaced, 195,000 jobs would be destroyed and land and construction losses would reach $30 trillion”, the reports said. France news.

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Ahmed Abdelkader, head of the Egyptian Coast Guard Authority, said “the West has a moral responsibility: it must help face the negative consequences of climate change, which is the result of its choices in civilization”.

Venice is often under the waves

An architectural masterpiece listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Venice is threatened by rising waters. More than 90% of the houses in the city of Doge are affected by episodes of aqua alta, these peaks of tides that flood St. Mark’s Square between autumn and early spring.

“Of the twenty-five worst aqua alta recorded in Venice in the last hundred years, all over 1.5 meters, more than half occurred after December 2009”, points out. National Geographic. To protect itself, the city has not hesitated to spend billions of euros on building movable walls. A system that endangers the lake by destroying the wetlands that make up the lake. And if the sea level rises by 30 cm, the water that invades the city will remain stagnant for weeks.

Did Mont Saint-Michel wipe the map?

France was not spared by the rising waters. “For the problem of sea-level rise, some areas are fragile: Saint-Malo, Mont Saint-Michel Bay…”, climatologist Jean Juchel acknowledges in an interview. Western France. Located in the Manche department in Normandy, the abbey and its village, classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, may one day be submerged.

“Climate change will affect not only water levels, but also currents, which will be weak,” explains Deborah Etier, science manager at the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM). Parisian. This will affect the transport of sediments and the topography of the sites, for example in Mont-Saint-Michel Bay.

In May 2022, the French government issued List of 126 Municipalities Coastal erosion and beach retreat exacerbated by global warming are classified as priorities. Most of them are located on the Atlantic coast and in the western part of France. Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyana are also concerned.

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