2024-03-13 21:40:00
In it Caribbeanthe Colombian city of Cartagena is gradually being lost underwater due to global warming. The sea rises through the bay and corpses from a cemetery washed away by the waves arrive on the shore. The gloomy image is installed as a warning. The city may be partially underwater this century.
Community leader Mirla Aaron, 53, felt the present slipping through the soles of her feet when she found on the shore the fossil remains of ancient inhabitants of Tierra Bomba, an island located in front of the luxurious hotel sector of Cartagena (north ). “The sea destroyed 250 homes in the communitythe health post, docks (…) took away several community halls, electrical infrastructure and the cemetery,” she told the agency in shock. AFP.
The tombs were far from the Caribbean Sea, but then the water advanced relentlessly until it flooded it when there are no longer living relatives to claim the material remains expropriated by the water.
This effect is explained by climate change and the fact that Colombia’s main commercial port was built on land with underground cavities that collapse, causing it to sink. “Unfortunately, the island has been the victim of an erosion process (…) which has increased exponentially in recent decades,” explained Aaron.
The scientific magazine Nature had already published a study in 2021 on the problems in the city of almost a million inhabitants: there they showed that since the beginning of the 21st century, sea level has risen annually by about 7.02 millimeters, “a rate higher” than the global average ( 2.9 millimeters).
This advance will continue irreverently if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced and The sea will rise in the bay by 26 centimeters by 2050 and 76 centimeters by 2100, according to research by the University of Zagreb, Miami International and the local EAFIT.
Why Cartagena
“The rise in sea level in the coastal area of Cartagena is due to two factors,” Canadian environmental scientist Marko Tosic explained to AFP. One of them is global warming of the planet, but it also impacts the “subsidence” or “sinking of the land”, which occurs “due to tectonic factors” and the presence of “submarine volcanoes.”
In that area the volcanic formations “are muddy and little by little gravity puts pressure” which causes the land to flatten and the city to sink.
400 years ago, a walled fortress was built in Cartagena to defend the wealth of the Spanish colonizers from pirates and these buildings were declared Heritage of humanity by unesco.
To protect the city, the authorities are building 4.5 kilometers of stone spurs or barriers to stop the impact of the waves. Without them, 80% of neighborhoods would be at risk of flooding.
Kelly Mendoza, a local resident, moved to a house near the shore in Tierra Bomba a decade ago and since then, two of her neighbors have lost their homes because the water collapsed. In his, the waves are already hitting the walls of her room. “When the wave hits the wall I get scared because I think it’s going to fall.”“, that “I’m going to be in the sea with my bed,” this 31-year-old woman confessed to AFP.
Inés Jiménez, 87, told the agency that it is no longer the city where she grew up; when she was young she had to move because her house was flooding. In those years the families “ran a little further back”, fleeing from the sea and imploring her mercy.
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Tosic assessed that The growth of the Caribbean is gradual, although it will become lethal. It is a “very small change, we are talking about millimeters over the years, but (…) the flood will be felt.” For his part, Mauricio Giraldo, another local leader and representative of fishermen, regrets the creation of the spur shield because it protects tourist attractions and high-end hotels, but it changes the maritime current and affects the areas where the most vulnerable live. “The sea is collapsing, in slow agony, it doesn’t know how to say ‘enough is enough,'” Giraldo concluded worriedly.
RB / Dog
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