Cartagena is sinking due to global warming – 03/13/2024 – Environment

The sea level rises every year and, little by little, the bay of Cartagena is swallowed by the ocean. The skulls in a cemetery hit by waves are proof of the consequences of global warming in Colombia’s most touristic city, which is at risk of being partially submerged this century.

Community leader Mirla Aaron, 53, says she was shocked to see the bones of the ancient inhabitants of Tierra Bomba, an island located opposite the luxurious hotel zone of Cartagena, in the north, on the beachfront.

The sea “destroyed 250 houses in the community, the health center, piers”, she says, emotionally. “It took several community halls and electrical infrastructure,” she adds.

The destroyed graves, which were a safe distance from the Caribbean Sea, are so old that there is no information about family members to care for the remains.

The effects of climate change on Cartagena are compounded by 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 that has increased exponentially in recent decades”, says the community leader.

In 2021, the scientific journal Nature published an academic study on the problem that affects the city of almost one million inhabitants: since the beginning of the 21st century, sea level has risen annually by around 7.02 millimeters, a higher rate than average overall, 2.9 mm.

If greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced, the sea will rise 26 centimeters in the bay by 2050, and 76 centimeters by 2100, researchers say.

Fallen walls

The rise in sea levels in the coastal area of ​​Cartagena is due to two factors, explains Canadian environmental scientist Marko Tosic, one of the authors of the publication.

First, due to the city’s vulnerability to global warming. But also due to subsidence (sinking of the soil) that occurs due to tectonic factors and the presence of underwater volcanoes.

These volcanic formations “are muddy and, little by little, gravity presses down” and causes the land to flatten and the city to sink, he adds.

More than 400 years ago, in Cartagena, a fortress was built to protect the wealth of Spanish colonizers from pirates. These buildings are one of the reasons for its exceptional beauty, which earned it the title of UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Currently, local authorities are extending 4.5 kilometers of breakwater to cushion the impact of waves. Without this construction, the city projects that 80% of neighborhoods would be at risk of flooding.

AFP observed houses with collapsed walls on the shore, a flooded restaurant where workers were trying to remove water that reached customers, and power lines exposed by erosion — previously, these lines were underground.

Tosic warns that the situation in the Caribbean is gradual, but will become lethal. It’s a “very small change, we’re talking millimeters over the years, but the flooding will be felt.”

According to him, poor populations will have fewer resources than areas of large hotels to deal with the force of nature.

Mauricio Giraldo, another local leader and representative of fishermen, complains that the rock shield protects tourist attractions and luxury hotels, but alters the sea current and affects the areas where the most vulnerable live.

In Tierra Bomba, for example, there are “black communities that were enslaved” and “that today resist to not lose their identity”, says Aaron.