Sunning European city and tourist spot that risks ‘disappearing soon’ | World | News
A beautiful European city known for its historic architecture and has roots to Roman history may “disappear soon”, experts have warned. Experts from Prime Casino put together a list of iconic cities that are under threat from climate change.
Experts delved into the data, examining each city’s age and the proportion of museums, art galleries, sacred and religious sites, architectural buildings, and landmarks in each location. According to the experts, Rome, which is home to around 4.3 million and attracted some 35 million tourists in 2023,is the oldest city under threat from climate change at 2,778 years old. It’s ‘Disappearing City’ score is 8.68/10, the anaylsis revealed. The experts said: “Beginning with a list of cities at risk of disappearing taken from list articles from sources such as Timeout and Metro, we analysed each on the following factors. We then gave each city a normalised score out of ten for each factor before taking an average across each score to reach our final overall score out of ten.”
The experts shared: “Home to the Pantheon, an ancient Roman temple, the city ranks in the top five for its proportion of sacred and religious sites (18 per 100,000).
“Rome also ranks in the top five for historic sites (12 per 100,000), which includes the world-famous Colosseum architectural buildings (9 per 100,000).
“However, climate change could threaten the City of Seven Hills. Some experts estimate Rome has 25 years left before it becomes uninhabitable due to increasing heatwaves.
“Founded in 753 BCE, the Italian capital is 2,778 years old and is home to treasures ranging from ancient temples to some of the best examples of Renaissance architecture. However, climate change could threaten the City of Seven Hills.”
According to the International Energy Agency, average annual temperatures in Italy have risen by 1C in the last 100 years, with an even faster increase in recent decades.
An analysis by a non-profiit organisation, Climate Reality Project, Italy is one country that’s on the front lines of extreme weather events and other impacts due to the climate crisis – and it’s having a cascading impact on the European nation, affecting everything from public health to agriculture and infrastructure.
It stated in a report: “High temperatures and dry conditions (more on that below) are also creating the perfect conditions for wildfires, damaging property and ecosystems and creating poor air quality.
“At least four people died across southern Italy and on the island of Sicily in 2023 as numerous fires burned across the Mediterranean region – something that has become an unfortunate yearly phenomenon.
“The story of extreme heat and Italy looks increasingly dire – unless we take fast action to slash emissions. If the world continues on a high-emissions pathway, by 2050, average annual temperatures in Italy could increase by as much as 2.4C, making extreme weather events like the heat waves and wildfires the country is currently seeing even more frequent and severe.”
