EVERY PLACE HAS A CLIMATE STORY: INTERPRETING CLIMATE

CHANGE AT HISTORIC SITES

Historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or
social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually
protected by law, and many have been recognized with the official national historic site status. A
historic site may be any building, landscape, site or structure that is of local, regional, or national
significance. Here are some of the historic sites where climate change plays or is playing a big role in the
process of destruction of these sites.

Imagine Rome without its Colosseum or a city trip to Rome under weather conditions that do not allow
you to visit the Colosseum? Ancient cultural heritage sites are on the wish list of every tourist and
constitute an important driver for urban tourism. Today, climate change is impacting the conservation
and exploitation of Historic sites. While extreme rain events damage the fragile materials, excessive heat
stress during heat waves in combination with air pollution and allergenic pollens leads to unbearable
conditions for the tourists. In particular, asthmatic, elderly, and sick persons are very sensitive to the
health impacts. Future climate predictions forecast that these negative impacts will become worse in
the near and far future. Extreme weather events will occur more often and with increased intensity. To
protect the cultural heritage for future generations as well as to safeguard their touristic exploitation
demands a long term vision. This vision needs to include future climatic conditions. The cultural heritage
urban climate service is intended for organisations managing cultural heritage sites. It will deliver
information based on climate projections designed for urban areas, which due to their intrinsic
characteristics such as absence of vegetation and very high soil sealing value, create their own
microclimate. At some time or another, every historian of Rome has been asked to say where we are,
today, on Rome’s cycle of decline. In the middle of the second century, the Romans controlled a huge,
geographically diverse part of the globe, from northern Britain to the edges of the Sahara, from the
Atlantic to Mesopotamia. Five centuries later, the Roman Empire was a small Byzantine rump-state
controlled from Constantinople, its near-eastern provinces lost to Islamic invasions, its western lands
covered by a patchwork of Germanic kingdoms. Trade receded, cities shrank, and technological advance
halted. The paradoxes of social development, and the inherent unpredictability of nature, worked in
concert to bring about Rome’s demise. Climate change did not begin with the exhaust fumes of
industrialization, but has been a permanent feature of human existence. Orbital mechanics (small
variations in the tilt, spin and eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit) and solar cycles alter the amount and
distribution of energy received from the Sun. And volcanic eruptions spew reflective sulfates into the
atmosphere, sometimes with long-reaching effects. It turns out that climate had a major role in the rise
and fall of Roman civilization. The empire-builders benefited from impeccable timing: the characteristic
warm, wet and stable weather was conducive to economic productivity in an agrarian society. The end
of this lucky climate regime did not immediately, or in any simple deterministic sense, spell the doom of
Rome. Rather, a less favorable climate undermined its power just when the empire was imperiled by
more dangerous enemies – Germans, Persians – from without. Climate instability peaked in the sixth
century, during the reign of Justinian. Disruptions in the biological environment were even more
consequential to Rome’s destiny. For all the empire’s precocious advances, life expectancy ranged in the
mid-20s, with infectious diseases the leading cause of death. Most dramatically, in the sixth century a
resurgent empire led by Justinian faced a pandemic of bubonic plague, a prelude to the medieval Black
Death. The toll was unfathomable – maybe half the population was felled. They built a civilization where
global networks, emerging infectious diseases and ecological instability were decisive forces in the fate
of human societies. The Romans, too, thought they had the upper hand over the fickle and furious
power of the natural environment. History warns us: they were wrong.

A number of Greek monuments that have stood intact since antiquity now appear to be facing a new
challenge: climate change, according to scientists who met during a two-day meeting on global warming
held in Athens last week. Air pollution, acid rain and extreme weather swings from flash flooding to
droughts are eroding ancient marbles and taking a toll on ancient walls and temples. According to the
experts attending the event, monuments such as the Parthenon standing atop the Acropolis hill, one of
the world’s most-visited sites and among the country’s best preserved, is seeing the impact of extreme
weather. It should be noted that like the Parthenon and the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, there are
hundreds of ancient monuments countrywide, many of which UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which now
– besides the passing of time – face a new threat: climate change. Christos Zerefos, a professor in the
Academy of Athens said extreme weather events had become more frequent and the sudden swings
from periods of flooding to drought were destabilizing the monuments. Speaking on the sidelines of a
conference on climate change and cultural heritage, Zerefos told Reuters Greece needed better shelter
for its monuments, and a monitoring system that would help provide extra protection in case of
extreme weather.

Bosra, once the capital of the roman provinces of Arabia, was an important stopover on the ancient
caravan route to Mecca. A magnificent 2nd century Roman theatre, early Christian ruins and several
mosques are found within its great walls. Bosra has an ancient history and during the Roman era it was a
prosperous provincial capital and Metropolitan Archbishopric, under the jurisdiction of Eastern
Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. It continued to be administratively important during
the Islamic era, but became gradually less prominent during the Ottoman era. It also became a Latin
Catholic titular see and the episcopal see of a Melkite Catholic Archeparchy. Today, it is a major
archaeological site and has been declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The ancient city of Bosra
is an inhabited archaeological site which suffered greatly in the 19th century. However the large amount
of surviving original fabric, including monuments of Nabataean, Roman, Byzantine, Ummayad periods
give the site a high degree of integrity. The inhabitants of the village that has grown up amongst the
ruins are being resettled outside the property. There is a need to define and manage a Buffer zone to
protect the setting.

Ozymandias is another name for Ramses II, the most powerful king of Egypt’s 19th dynasty. Ramses’
reign began a golden age in Egypt, brought on by his successful military campaigns into the Levant,
Nubia, and Syria. Each of these victories was memorialized by new cities, elaborate temples, and
massive statues erected all over his realm. Among his many projects were the temples of Abu Simbel in
Upper Egypt. Located in Nubia along the Nile River, they were carved out of solid rock. They
commemorated a victory over the Hittites at Kadesh in 1275 B.C., and reminded Nubia of Egyptian
dominance. Like many ancient structures, they eventually fell into disuse, true to the themes of
“Ozymandias.” Sands moved in and buried the temples of Abu Simbel for millennia. In 1813,
archaeologists recovered Ramses’ temples from the desert, and their immortality seemed assured until
1960, when plans to dam the Nile threatened to submerge them and other ancient monuments in the
region. To save them, Egypt sponsored a massive international effort to launch the most complex
archaeological rescue mission of all time: to move entire sites to higher ground. At almost 13,000 feet
in length, the Aswan High Dam was to be built just south of the Nile-side city of Aswan, upstream of
Luxor. The brainchild of Egypt’s president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, it would prevent destructive flooding,
generate power, and boost agriculture in the region. The project, however, had major drawbacks. The
creation of Lake Nasser, a 298-mile-long artificial reservoir upriver from the dam, and whose southern
limits extend into Sudan, would require the resettlement of 90,000 people. The impact on the
monuments that studded the Nubian region would also be catastrophic. A smaller dam, built in 1902,
had already flooded some of the monuments, including the temple complex of Philae. The new project
further threatened this area, as well as scores of other sites, including the Abu Simbel complex near the
Egypt-Sudan border. In 1960, the executive committee of UNESCO (the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization) launched its International Campaign to Save the Monuments of
Nubia, appealing for the help of its member states. UNESCO organized fund-raising to rescue and
preserve as many of the archaeological monuments and sites as possible. Thirty countries even issued
stamps depicting the monuments as part of a fund-raising drive to cover the costs of the international
campaign. The Egyptian government and UNESCO experts drew up a list of monuments threatened by
the dam. A survey of just a few revealed their huge historical range spanning more than 2,000 years of
human civilization. The sites included the ancient fortress of Buhen in Sudan, built by Senusret III in the
19th century B.C. It was excavated as part of the UNESCO project, and two temples were dismantled
and transferred. The fortress itself, however, could not be saved and is now under water.

Iconic buildings and sites from the leaning tower of Pisa to the canal streets of Venice are in danger of
being inundated by rising sea levels, according to a new study. Scientists identified 47 key cultural
locations across the Mediterranean that are likely to face severe flooding and erosion by the end of the
century. The region is home to dozens of UNESCO world heritage sites, many of which are found along
the coasts. While climate change has been recognized as threat to some of these sites, sea level rise has
rarely been incorporated into management plans for their future preservation. A recent UN
report found that coastal regions are some of the most vulnerable to climate change, with millions likely
to be forced from their homes in the coming decades as rising tides make flooding the norm and
contaminate freshwater supplies. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the campanile, or freestanding bell
tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa, known worldwide for its nearly four-degree lean, the
result of an unstable foundation. The tower is situated behind the Pisa Cathedral and is the third-oldest
structure in the city's Cathedral Square (Piazza del Duomo), after the cathedral and the Pisa Baptistry.
The height of the tower is 55.86 metres (183.27 feet) from the ground on the low side and 56.67 metres
(185.93 feet) on the high side. The width of the walls at the base is 2.44 m (8 ft 0.06 in). Its weight is
estimated at 14,500 metric tons (16,000 short tons). The tower has 296 or 294 steps; the seventh floor
has two fewer steps on the north-facing staircase. The tower began to lean during construction in the
12th century, due to soft ground which could not properly support the structure's weight, and it
worsened through the completion of construction in the 14th century. By 1990 the tilt had reached 5.5
degrees. The structure was stabilized by remedial work between 1993 and 2001, which reduced the tilt
to 3.97 degrees. At least four strong earthquakes hit the region since 1280, but the apparently
vulnerable Tower survived. The reason was not understood until a research group of 16 engineers
investigated. The researchers concluded that the Tower was able to withstand the tremors because of
dynamic soil-structure interaction (DSSI): the height and stiffness of the Tower together with the
softness of the foundation soil influences the vibrational characteristics of the structure in such a way
that the Tower does not resonate with earthquake ground motion. The same soft soil that caused the
leaning and brought the Tower to the verge of collapse helped it survive.
Pompeii has already been wiped out once by the devastating eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD. But now the
Roman ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum could be lost through flooding and erosion caused by climate
change, a major study has found. The ancient towns are among dozens of World Heritage sites at risk
from sea-level rise in the Mediterranean as the climate warms, researchers at the University of Kiel, in
Germany, have warned. Pompeii has been many things over the centuries. It's been "a vineyard, a
treasure trove, a den of bandits and today it remains an archaeological gem 'exposed and vulnerable,'"
according to the new book From Pompeii: The Afterlife of a Roman Town. It was the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius of course, that has frozen Pompeii in time, leaving the twisted shapes of its long-ago
inhabitants imprinted in volcanic ash for centuries. In 1962 Italy was still really coming out of the
devastation of World War II. You could still see bombed-out buildings, and people were unbelievably
poor. That kind of poverty is much harder to find in Italy now. What people wore was much simpler;
life was a lot simpler. The earthquake of 1980 really changed everything drastically. It shook the whole
site up, and a lot of things started crumbling at that point. The really marked change was the
earthquake, [and] it's still a problem. The climate is fairly mild. Pompeii does not have extreme
temperature, and also did not have—until recently—torrential rains. It's not something like Chicago or
Boston where everything freezes. Freezing is rare, so the ruins aren't subjected to extremes of
temperature. The problem is that it's a volcanic area, so it's completely unstable. That means
earthquakes are inevitable. There's also a phenomenon called bradyseism, which is a word based on
the Greek for "slow shaking." What happens is that Vesuvius fills up with stuff, then the ground rises
and then the ground falls again. The effect of these torrential rains is devastating. The latest crumblings
are all because it rains so much more now than it used to. The ground gets soaked and then it
destabilizes. That's really what's been happening when you get all these reports of crumbling: It's
because it rains and rains and rains, and it wasn't like that before. Global warming is causing this rain. It
really is straightforward climate change.
The world’s first great civilizations appear to have collapsed because of an ancient episode of climate
change – according to new research carried out by scientists and archaeologists. Their investigation
demonstrates that the Bronze Age 'megacities' of the Indus Valley region of Pakistan and north-west
India declined during the 21st and 20th centuries BC and never recovered – because of a dramatic
increase in drought conditions. The research, carried out by the University of Cambridge and India’s
Banaras Hindu University, reveals that a series of droughts lasting some 200 years hit the Indus Valley
zone – and was probably responsible for the rapid decline of the great Bronze Age urban civilization of
that region. The findings correlate chronologically with drought evidence found over recent years by
other scientists who have examined deposits from the bottom of the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman
as well as stalactites from caves in North east India and southern. The scientists studying the collapse of
the Indus Valley Civilization obtained their new evidence from a dried-up lake bed near India’s capital
New Delhi which is just 40 miles east of the eastern edge of the Indus Valley Civilization. They detected
the climatic conditions by examining isotopic evidence from the shells of snails that had lived between
6500 years ago and 1500 years ago. The isotopic values of the calcium carbonate in the snails’ shells
reflected the isotopic value in the water in the lakes at the time they lived. It’s now thought likely that
the droughts at around that time were partly responsible for the collapse not only of the Indus Valley
Civilization, but also of the ancient Akkadian Empire, Old Kingdom Egypt and possibly Early Bronze Age
civilizations in Greece. Because water with oxygen 16 isotopes evaporates more quickly than water with
‘heavier’ oxygen 18 isotopes, the scientists were able to measure changes in evaporation rates over
time. This allowed them to identify the start and end of a previously unknown 200 year-long severe
drought in the north-west India region which lasted from around 2100BC to approximately 1900 BC. In
that period, the Indus Valley 'megacities' – some with populations of up to 100,000 – rapidly declined.
Populations shrank and the old urban civilization, which had lasted 500 years, collapsed.
The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been
seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago
marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate
changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy
our planet receives. Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to
see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a
global scale. This body of data, collected over many years, reveals the signals of a changing climate. The
heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th
century. Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific
basis of many instruments flown by NASA. There is no question that increased levels of greenhouse
gases must cause the Earth to warm in response. Across the Mediterranean region, flood risk may
increase by 50% and erosion risk by 13% by the year 2100, the study found, with considerably higher
increases at specific World Heritage sites, areas chosen to be preserved due to their importance in
human history. The impact on those historical icons would be significant, the study warned, unless
actions are taken quickly. Many of those World Heritage sites are already at risk from rising sea levels.
Venice, for example, has been thought to be sinking for years. In reality, Venice floods regularly, and has
done so for centuries. In 1996 a combination of rain, high tides and high wind caused the canals to rise a
devastating 6 feet above normal levels. That's today. But little is known about the potential future
effects of the flooding and erosion climate change may bring, and that was what this study was designed
to address.