Source: The Chosun Ilbo
If climatologists' predictions of global warming are right, some of the world's most treasured places could disappear or be radically changed. Newsweek magazine on Sunday released a list of 100 of the world's most beautiful places that are threatened by climate change, including the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the Mississippi River Delta, the Caribbean Sea, New York's Manhattan, Western Hudson Bay in Canada, the Panama Canal and the Amazon rainforest of Brazil.
The largest number of endangered sites are located in Asia. Among the 26 are the Republic of Maldives in the Indian Ocean, the Ganges Delta of Bangladesh, Thailand's capital city Bangkok, Lake Baikal in Siberia, and Gujarat, India's largest producer of cotton.
Amazon rainforest of Brazil (left) and Big Sur of California, the U.S.Tokyo and Beijing were also on the list. The capital of Japan suffers from a "heat island" phenomenon, a characteristic of mega-cities in which heat from car exhaust and factory emissions creates a local greenhouse effect. Beijing was included because rising temperatures and changing rain patterns are causing the desert to encroach on the city.
No Korean cities were on the list.
Eighteen locations in Europe made the list, such as Venice, Copenhagen, Rotterdam, and the Aegean Sea of Greece. In the Oceania and Antarctic region, 12 places were named and in the Americas 23.
The Arctic region saw 11 places listed, including Alaska's North Slope, the tundra of Norway, Ilulissat Icefjord of Greenland and the North Pole. Seventeen of the locations are in Africa, such as the Congo Basin, the Cape Floral Region of South Africa, the Masai Mara savanna in Kenya and the Nile Delta in Egypt.
Most of the locations have one thing in common: they are likely to disappear or undergo massive geographical changes due to rising sea levels as a result of global warming.