Ancient Silk Road art faces climate change risks - The Star Online
Ancient Silk Road art faces climate change risks | The Star
Unique experience: Tourists riding camels in the Crescent Spring and Mingsha Sand Dune scenic area in Dunhuang, Gansu province. — Xinhua
Gansu: Artwork and statues in China’s Dunhuang caves have survived sandstorms, political upheaval and tourists for more than a millennium. Now preservationists fear they’re facing their most unrelenting foe yet – climate change.
Extreme weather is bringing increased bouts of heavy rainfall and moisture to the deserts of Gansu province that have preserved the caves and their artwork since they began to spring up in the 4th century, according to Greenpeace East Asia. Delicate paintings are increasingly flaking and peeling, and cracks are forming that could undermine the structural integrity of the caves themselves.
“Increased bouts of rainfall in the desert pose an acute risk,” said Li Zhao, a Greenpeace researcher. “Spikes in humidity, flash floods, and cave-ins are already happening.”
For Li, the most alarming thing is that the damage is happening despite the Unesco-listed caves being among the best-funded and closely monitored heritage sites in China. There are likely thousands of other less-well known sites facing similar risks, and work is needed to identify and protect them, she said.
Researchers from France to Namibia to Indonesia to Australia have found evidence that climate change is accelerating the degradation of some of ancient cave and rock art in those countries.
Floods can erode artwork, salt crystallisation can cause flaking and peeling, and a combination of moisture and heat can even cause rocks on which art is painted to explode.
Dunhuang was a desert oasis and frequent pit stop for traders travelling the Silk Road route between China and Central Asia.
The first cave was carved into the cliffs there around 366 AD, according to Unesco, and over the next 1,000 years they became one of the world’s richest repositories of Buddhist art, featuring an amalgamation of styles from China, India, Turkiye and various ethnic minorities. — Bloomberg
Subscribe now to our Premium Plan for an ad-free and unlimited reading experience!
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”