American Anthropological Association

Photo by Flickr user "United Nations Photo"

Climate change is forcing coastal archaeologists to expedite their digs, the Associated Press reported earlier this month. Sea levels are expected to rise 39 inches by 2100, compared to seven inches in the past century, as a result of global warming. C. Brian Rose, president of the Archaeological Institute of America, said, “There are whole civilizations that we risk losing completely. History is disintegrating before our eyes.” Joe Erlandson, an archaeologist in the Channel Islands, agrees. He is currently racing to save key artifacts that hold some of the earliest evidence for human seafaring in the Americas.

Rising sea levels will also have severe effects upon the populations of small island nations. Climate change could uproot six million people annually, increase weather-related disasters, and expand conflict over scarce resources. Inhabitants of Bhola Island in Bangladesh, Kutubdia in the Bay of Bengal, and parts of Tuvalu and New Guinea have already been forced to relocate in recent years due to elevated sea levels. Island nations are making a strong push to accelerate carbon reduction timetables, and 43 island states recently called on developed nations to cut greenhouse emissions by at least 45 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2020.

For more on this subject, read anthropologist Holly Barker’s piece in CounterPunch, “The Inequities of Climate Change and the Small Island Experience.”

Filed under: Anthro in the Media