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We all know that climate change melts glaciers and shifts sea levels. But have you ever thought about how rising temperatures can threaten beautiful places in every corner of the world? Some of these spots may be closer to home than you think.
For Earth Day, Yahoo! News interviewed Gaute Hogh, publisher of the book 100 Places to Go Before They Disappear (distributed by Abrams in the U.S.). Hogh was inspired to produce the book after witnessing the effects of global warming in his native Denmark. He wanted to show how natural beauty around the globe could be forever altered by climate change.
"The whole purpose of this book was to show my children the effects of climate change," Hogh says. "People usually show someone suffering and I wanted to show the positive side of it: If we don't do anything, we'll lose some of these beautiful places."
The first place that came to Hogh's mind was the Wadden Sea, a low-lying coastal zone in Denmark where visitors can "walk on water" to see varied landscapes and migratory birds. Hogh fears that rising sea levels will make the crossing too dangerous and destroy its dynamic ecosystem.
"One of my missions with the book is to show teenagers, if you don't turn off the water or turn down the heat, these places will disappear," Hogh says. "They may say, 'Why should I do this?' But if I show them these pictures, they start to see it another way."
Looking beyond his homeland, Hogh and his team used 2009 data from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to cover a diversity of locations, both well-known and obscure. One famous locale is London by the river Thames, which could overflow by as early as 2025. Flooding would damage the city's underground rail network and could cost upwards of $48 billion.
Several areas in South America are vulnerable, including Brazil's white sand beaches by the coastal city of Recife. Increased flooding from Amazonian rivers also threatens the world's largest estuary Rio de la Plata, where coastal capitals Buenos Aires and Montevideo sit. It's also the natural habitat of threatened species like sea turtles, the rare La Plata dolphin, and the croaker, a drum-fish that croaks like a frog.
While many may be familiar with the precarious future of the Maldives, they may not know that even smaller islands like Tonga's Vava'u are also in danger. Said to be the best place to see whales in the wild, the small island chain is also prized for its vibrant coral reefs. Increased levels of CO2 are being absorbed by the ocean, bleaching reefs and endangering coral around the planet."For me, I don't care whether the place is big or small," Hogh says. "It's the same thing with people. No matter if you're black or white or Chinese or whatever. It's about treating each other with respect and it's the same thing with these small islands."
--By Allie Louie-Garcia and Thomas Kelley
