Not only is global warming threatening civilization, it could threaten the $662 billion international tourism industry long-term according to the CBS “Evening News.”
Correspondent Mark Phillips reported a “new international study” that said “global warming may hasten the destruction of some of the world’s most treasured buildings and heritage sites.” Phillips neglected to tell viewers that some of the sites had survived at least two changes in climate and a couple world wars.
The “new international study” Phillips referred to was released by a consortium of organizations that formed “The NOAH’s Ark Project: Global Climate Change Impact on Built Heritage and Cultural Landscapes.”
“The message – see them now,” said Phillips on the June 19 broadcast. “Within 50 to 100 years, treasures that have lasted for centuries may look very different or not be there at all.”
According to Phillips’ doom and gloom scenario, some of these structures that have been around since the 6th century B.C., have survived the Medieval Optimum and the Little Ice Age and survived the two bloodiest wars in recorded civilization – World Wars I and II. Yet, they may not make it past the year 2100 because the earth is reportedly turning a bit warmer.
CBS didn’t mention that point, rather Phillips brought on an expert who warned that people will have to decide which monuments to keep.
“The notion that we can save everything for all time is, I think, one that we have to seriously think about because it’s unrealistic – we cannot,” said May Cassar, one of the study’s authors and director of the Centre for Sustainable Heritage.
Although nowhere in the study was it implied the climate change threat these structures are facing is manmade, the CBS report did not make that clear.
“The point of this new study is that climate change may not only threaten our future, it may also threaten some of the most inspiring and important touchstones of our past,” said Phillips. “And we may have to choose which of these monuments we try to preserve and which we allow to crumble and be lost forever.”
