America’s historic monuments – both natural landmarks and human-built structures – draw millions each year to witness and pay tribute to a simultaneously rich and painful heritage, but these physical markers are at risk from the effects of a changing climate.
image: for illustration purposes only – Bandelier Cliff Dwellings by Artotem from Here, There, and…, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
‘… losing that history to climate change means we also lose a chance at connection with “each other’s heritage and accomplishments and stories…’
PBS News Hour writes:
America’s historic monuments – both natural landmarks and human-built structures – draw millions each year to witness and pay tribute to our simultaneously rich and painful heritage. But summertime, when many of us get the chance to play tourist, is also the start of hurricane and wildfire seasons – a reminder that the physical markers of our history are at risk from the effects of a changing climate..
‘Historic places are primary sources, just like documents, diaries and letters. They tell us about ourselves. And they tell us about the complex and intertwined shared narrative of our country,’ said Katherine Malone-France, chief preservation officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit working to preserve historic places …
Unless global carbon dioxide emissions are cut drastically, the Earth will sail past the 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius threshold seen as our best chance to rein in the most severe consequences of climate change……
… We are part of something bigger than ourselves,” Malone-France said. But losing that history to climate change means we also lose a chance at connection with “each other’s heritage and accomplishments and stories.”…
- Jamestown: The ruins of Fort James in Jamestown, Virginia… When British sailors arrived in 1607 at the strip of land that would become Jamestown, Virginia, it was not an island, but a small peninsula..
- Ponce Historic Zone: The Ponce Historic Zone, which made the National Trust’s 2020 most endangered list, is a collection of more than 1,000 structures in Puerto Rico’s second-largest city…
- Boston Harbor Islands: The islands that are located in Boston Harbor are a sacred site of commemoration for Indigenous Americans…
- Olivewood Cemetry: Houston’s oldest plotted Black cemetery, Olivewood, was incorporated in 1875, 10 years after the end of chattel slavery in Texas…
- New Mexico monuments: In Bandelier National Monument, around 40 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, evidence of human habitation dates back 11,000 years…
