100 places to remember before they disappear

Land of The Thunder DragonFor the last 1,200 years, Buddhism has been the dominant religion in the small kingdom of Bhutan squeezed between Tibet and India on the southern slopes of the Himalayas. Bhutan covers some 38,000 square kilometers (about the size of Switzerland) of rugged mountainside, deep valleys and snow-covered peaks. The locals call it Druk Yu, meaning “Land of the Thunder Dragon”. It is thought that its official name, Bhutan, derives from a Sanskrit term meaning “At the end of Tibet”. In the 17th century, fortress monasteries – dzongs in Bhutanese - were built across the country to offer protection from Tibetan invaders. Many of these still survive as working monasteries but a few have been destroyed by fire, such as Sey Dzong, the ruins of which lie at the foot of the holy mountain of Chomo Lhari. Climate change is causing a significant increase in the melt-off from the glaciers.
.... Photograph: James L. Stanfield/guardian.co.uk

Pastoral Life on the Mongolian Plains
The nomads of Mongolia have roamed the plains of Central Asia for the last 3,000 years. They lead a pastoral way of life, moving around in search of pasture for their livestock and sites for their gers (their word for a yurt, a round, moveable dwelling). .... For Mongolian herdsmen and women, horses are indispensable. They provide transport and the mares supply milk, which is also fermented into the national alcoholic drink, airag. The herdsmen raise cows, yaks, sheep and goats and, in the Gobi Desert to the south, the breed camels as well. The cattle supply them with essential meat, milk, yoghurt and cheese, the sheep with wool for clothing and felt for the gers. Depending on the season, most Mongolian nomads move their campsite three times a year, but in the harsh south they can move up to 18 times a year.
.... Photograph: Bruno Morandi/guardian.co.uk

The Dangerous Birthplace of “El Libertador”
...... The war of independence finally ended in victory in 1821, a decade after Bolívar and his followers had prematurely proclaimed independence in Caracas. A year after the initial rebellion, an earthquake had destroyed the city and transformed the valley into a cemetery, an event viewed by the Spanish as divine retribution.
..... Around 4.3 million people live in Caracas, some two million in poorly built shanty towns or barrios on the slopes that surround the city, where landslides caused by heavy rain are a chronic problem. In 1999, 30,000 people were killed in one of the Americas’ worst natural disasters, when several days of rainstorms triggered flash floods, landslides and flows of debris in the coastal zone on the north slopes of Cordillera de la Costa just north of Caracas. Photograph: Zigy Kaluzny/guardian.co.uk

A living cultural landscape
Aboriginal clans have occupied the land of Kakadu in the north of Australia for more than 40,000 years. Kakadu National Park is famous for its unique interaction between culture and nature, as exemplified by the 10,000-year-old stone paintings and remarkable variety of wildlife made possible by the diversity of its tropical climate. The lush, green wetlands of Kakadu support more than 60 species of water bird and, at the end of the northern summer, the wetlands attract about 30 species of migratory birds that have flown south to these warmer climates from their breeding grounds in Siberia and China. Along the flood plains of the wetland lie paperbark forests that sustain honeyeaters, lorikeets and other nectar-feeding birds. Paperbark trees are vital to the Aboriginal peoples, who produce canoes from them by folding a single, large piece of bark into a canoe.
.... Photograph: Belinda Wright/guardian.co.uk

“Chicago! It’s the Pulse of America”Chicago has been the Midwest’s centre of transportation, industry, finance and entertainment ever since it was founded in the 1830s on the south-eastern shore of the great Lake Michigan, close to the Mississippi River. As French actress Sarah Bernhardt said: “Chicago! It’s the pulse of America."
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I Throughout the rest of the 21st century, Chicago could experience a gradual, dramatic increase in heatwaves and flooding due to global warming. Prolonged summer droughts and heavy rainfall would have a grave effect on its infrastructure and transport system. An increase in hot summer days with temperatures rising above 43°C, combined with unpredictable heavy rain and flooding, could cause more heat-related health problems and damage Chicago’s tourism industry. By the end of the century, the climate in Chicago could be similar to that of southern states like Texas and Alabama today. Photograph: Jim Richardson/guardian.co.uk

The Oldest and Deepest Lake in the WorldLake Baikal in southern Siberia is the world’s deepest lake, and the largest freshwater one by volume. It contains more water than all of North America’s Great Lakes combined, equivalent to 20% of the world’s surface fresh water. Baikal is also the oldest lake in the world, possibly dating back more than 25 million years.
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For a long time, Lake Baikal was believed to be unaffected by human activities, thanks to its unique self-cleansing ecosystem whereby the endemic zooplankton Epischura baicalensis suck particles of toxic waste out of the lake and clean the water. However, studies have now shown that the Epischura do not neutralise contamination after all but pass it on to other animals instead. Photograph: Sarah Leen/guardian.co.uk

At the Top of the Food ChainWith a thick covering of blubber, two layers of fur, small ears and a short tail, the polar bear is perfectly adapted for survival in the icy north. For the polar bear the problem is not the cold but overheating, which is why it prefers to move at a leisurely pace. The polar bear roams the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas, including Canada’s Hudson Bay to the south. As the top of the food chain in the Arctic, the polar bear spends most of the year on the frozen sea, hunting for seals.
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In Western Hudson Bay, the ice now breaks up three weeks earlier than it did in the early 1970s. Starvation has already reduced the survival rate of cubs and young bears, and made bears of all ages less healthy. Within the next 35 to 50 years, a decline in the overall polar bear population of more than 30% is expected, and within 100 years they may become extirpated from most of their geographic range. Photograph: Norbert Rosing/guardian.co.uk

A Rush Hour like no other on EarthGlobal warming is now changing life even faster. Tokyo suffers from a phenomenon known as “heat islands”, a characteristic of megacities where artificial heat from car exhausts and factory emissions create a local greenhouse effect. In the last 100 years, temperatures in Tokyo have increased five times faster than global warming. A century ago, Tokyo experienced five tropical nights a year at most. The figure is now 40, while temperatures on winter nights rarely fall below 0°C. Leaves now start changing colour in mid-December instead of late November, and cherry blossoms start to bloom earlier every year. With the projected rise in global temperature, the heat in big cities like Tokyo will continue to increase. This will lead to more people suffering from heat stroke and respiratory disease, and will change both the seasons and the way of life in the city. Photograph: Adastra/guardian.co.uk

The Forest of the Cedars of GodAt one time the plains and mountains of Lebanon were densely covered with majestic cedar trees. Today, the heavily reduced remains of the immense forests are found on the high slopes of Mount al-Makmal in northern Lebanon. They are known as the Cedars of God. It is said that the cedar of Lebanon is one of the oldest trees in the world. Among the Lebanese Cedars of God, 12 trees are more than a thousand years old, and the rest are aged at least one hundred. In the years to come the last ancient cedars face a severe threat from climate change. During the next 70 years the temperature in Lebanon is expected to rise, while the precipitation will drop, making the climate significantly more arid than today, and affecting the conservation of the cedar trees. In the future, the ancient cedars might only exist as part of a mythological past, leaving the Lebanese landscape barren. Photograph: George F. Mobley/guardian.co.uk

Land Of Open SpacesThe Namibian Desert is believed to be the oldest desert in the world. Straddling the Atlantic coast of south-west Africa, it is home to the biggest migrating dunes in the world. Shaped by the west wind from the Atlantic, they reach heights of 300 metres. Namibia means “Land of open spaces”, and is named after the desert. .... Moisture from the sea in the form of fog and rain carried on the westerly wind is crucial for the sparse flora and wildlife, indeed for all life in the bush and savanna.
... It is estimated that a temperature rise of 2.1ºC would wipe out 41-51% of Namibia’s unique flora and wildlife. Within the next 80 years, temperatures are projected to rise by up to 3.5ºC. Photograph: Michael Poliza/guardian.co.uk

The North Slope region consists of a huge expanse of permafrost in the most northerly part of Alaska. Forest and tundra cover the region, with winding rivers running from the Brooks Ranges to the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean. Despite being almost as big as Great Britain, the permanent population numbers a mere 7,300. ... The thawing of the permafrost now poses a serious threat to the area. The ‘active’ layer of permafrost – the part that freezes in winter, thaws in summer and sustains vegetation – ranges from a few inches to a few feet deep. In the last quarter of a century, rising temperatures have made the active layer deeper. It now encroaches into the permanently frozen deposits of ice, soil, stones and organic material that form the foundation for the physical stability of the whole area. Photograph: Joel Sartore/guardian.co.uk

A City that Thrived for Centuries French traders founded Saint-Louis on the uninhabited island of Ndar in 1659. Named after King Louis XIV, it served as the capital of French West Africa for nearly three centuries, making it one of the busiest cities on the continent, exporting slaves, ivory, gold, hides, gum Arabic and later ground nuts to Atlantic merchants.
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Saint-Louis is extremely exposed to flooding from the river, high tides and periodic heavy rainfall. Rapid urbanisation has forced many poor people to set up home on long dried-out riverbeds – virtually uninhabitable due to the risk of floods and landslides. Poor infrastructure and inadequate drainage networks are also core problems. With the sea level rising and more intense rainfall events predicted, flooding is expected to occur more frequently, with each new flood a further nail in the coffin of an ailing city and a further blight on the lives of already impoverished families and communities. Photograph: Bobby Haas/guardian.co.uk

An Oasis of Wildlife, Above and BelowThe Bayei people, one of several tribes dwelling in the Okavango Delta, use a poem to teach their children about the delta: “I am the river. My surface gives you life. Below is death.” The death “below” refers to the crocodiles that inhabit the region and are a threat to the people and animals of the delta. ...... The Okavango Delta is trapped in the parched Kalahari Desert with no permanent outlet to the sea, and is a magnet for the wildlife that depends on the delta and its seasonal flooding. Each year, 11 cubic kilometres of water reaches the Okavango Delta, water that is unusually pure, thanks to the absence of agriculture or industry along the adjoining rivers. Precipitation is expected to decrease because of climate change, while the temperature is projected to rise. This will cause the delta’s enormous peat bogs to dry out, with a risk that the peat will catch fire, releasing massive amounts of greenhouse gases. Photograph: Bobby Haas/guardian.co.uk

A Tropical Paradise just above Water Famous for its 1,200 tropical islands, snow-white beaches, swaying palm trees and richly coloured coral reefs, the Maldives has become a tourist paradise. This island nation, officially called the Republic of Maldives, consists of 22 atolls with many small islands scattered in circles. It stretches almost 1,000 kilometres from north to south in the Indian Ocean, south-west of the Indian subcontinent. Only 198 of the islands are permanently inhabited, although many others have been developed into tourist resorts. For the 360,000 inhabitants, tourism has become the biggest industry, accounting for almost 30% of national income and more than 60% of foreign currency. With 80% of the country less than one metre above sea level, climate change poses a serious threat to the Maldives, especially since almost all of the human settlements, vital infrastructure and industries are located in the close proximity of coast.
.... Photograph: Sakis Papadopoulos/guardian.co.uk

Winemaking along the River Lot near the town of Cahors in the south of France dates back to Roman Empire. The first vines were planted here in about 50 BC, and the area has been known for its red wine ever since. During the Middle Ages, Cahors wine was known as “the black wine of Lot”. King Henry II of England drank it at his wedding in 1152 and when Pope John XXII, a shoemaker’s son from Cahors, was enthroned in 1316 he used Cahors as both table wine and sacramental wine. Nearly 500 years later, it was the favourite wine of Russian Emperor Peter the Great. Shortly afterwards, the Russian Orthodox Church adopted Cahors as its sacramental wine.
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Summer temperatures are projected to rise by more than 6°C in the south of France by 2070-2099, which could put an end to traditional wine production in Cahors and many other parts of the country. Photograph: Jeremy Walker/guardian.co.uk

A Place as Real as its Mud is HardTo many Westerners, Timbuktu is shrouded in mystery, existing more in the mind than on the map. Phrases like “from here to Timbuktu” paint it as a remote, exotic place at the edge of the world. In fact, the city of Timbuktu is very real. Bordering the Sahara Desert in the West African nation of Mali, it was once an economic and cultural hub, enjoying a privileged position in the middle of the trans-Saharan trade routes. The great Djingareyber, Sankoré and Sidi Yahia mosques, built during Timbuktu’s golden age from the 14th to the 16th centuries, still stand today and all three are on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Together, the three mosques once composed the famous University of Timbuktu, which made the city a centre of wisdom, attracting learned men from throughout the Muslim world. In the mosques’ open courtyards and in private residences, students were taught the Qur’an, logic, mathematics, astronomy and history.
..... Photograph: James P. Blair/guardian.co.uk