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There are some places in this world that are uniquely beautiful, but are very likely to disappear soon. I compiled a list of the top 10 places you should visit before they're gone. |
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1. The Alaskan Tundra – The coldest biome in the world, Alaska’s Tundra is severely affected by global warming and is at risk of disappearing very soon. |
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2. The Great Barrier Reef – At 500,000 years old, it is the world’s most complex ecosystem, larger than the Great Wall of China, the Great Barrier Reef is slowly dying due to pollution and climate change. |
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3. The Dead Sea – The lowest place on earth, the Dead Sea is also a natural wonder. Its water’s healing properties and renowned and its below-sea-level altitude makes it one of the only places people with psoriasis can get out in the sun without suffering. Sadly, with diversion of water from the Jordan River as well as industrial harvesting of the salt, the Dead Sea has been shrinking. Visitors today can see hotels and resorts that were once on the shoreline, now hundreds of meters away. |
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4. Madagascar - World-famous for its lemurs, Madagascar has over 20 different species of lemurs and 80% of the flora and fauna on the island are unique to Madagascar. Sadly, the island’s entire eco system is being destroyed because of logging, poaching and land-burning (a way to clear land for farming). It is estimated that if nothing is done to stop this, Madagascar’s eco system will disappear in 30 years. |
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5. The Maldives – A Chain of roughly 1,900 islands in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives are a small taste of paradise. Most of the land in the Maldives is no higher than 5ft (1.5 meters), and with predicted rise in water levels, there is a great chance they’ll disappear in the next 10 years. |
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6. Glacier National Park – Located in Montana, the park is losing its signature glaciers at an alarming rate. Where once there were 150 glaciers, nowadays there are 25 left with experts warning that they might be gone by the end of the decade. |
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7. Patagonia - The largest ice fields in the world after Antarctica and Greenland, are in Patagonia. A recent study found that about 90 percent of the mountain glaciers in the region are melting up to 100 times faster than at any time in the past 350 years, and at least a dozen glacier-fed lakes have vanished virtually overnight in the last five years alone. |
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8. The Taj Mahal - One of the 7 wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal attracts over 3 million people every year. Sadly, due to air pollution and the crowds its white stone facade is slowly eroding. It has become so problematic that tourism officials are considering closing this monument to the public by 2020. |
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9. Venice – With origins as far back as the 2nd century C.E., Venice is one of the most renowned cities in the world, made famous for its canals and gondolas. Venice makes this list because it’s still sinking. At a rate of 2 millimeters a year (0.02 inches), the city is likely to either sink slowly to its final rest under the Adriatic Sea, or crumble as the sea-water corrodes the foundations of the buildings. And if that wasn’t enough, scientists now discovered that the city is also tilting to the east… |
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10. The Florida Everglades - The largest subtropical wilderness in America and the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere. With urbanization and water diversion, thousands of acres have disappeared, leaving the Everglades half the size it was a century ago. There is a national plan to save the Everglades, but whether it happens or not, only time will tell. |
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