The Dead Sea Jordan

There is something quirky about this strange body of water that stretches between Jordan’s mountains and the rolling hills of Jerusalem. For a start, despite the fact it’s called a sea, it is landlocked and is nine times saltier than any ocean. You’ve probably seen images of friends bobbing like rubber ducks on its surface, or smeared in its thick black mud, which is revered for its healing properties. Now, headline-writers are making quips about the fact that the Dead Sea appears actually to be dying.

Unfortunately, it’s no joke. The water is receding 1.2m every year. According to the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research centre, in 1911 the waterline was 390m below sea level and by 2500 it will be 550m. Local businesses are already feeling the drain. When it was built in 1980, the waves lapped against the Ein Gedi resort. Today the water is 2km away and guests have to be taken down on a train, costing the hotel £400,000 a year. The main cause is the damming of the River Jordan – the sea’s only tributary – which is also key to agriculture in Jordan, Syria and Israel.

Once a thundering waterway, it has lost 90 per cent of its flow and is barely more than a stream for much of the year. Will this unique ecosystem be nothing more than a barren moonscape in the near future? Not if the £2bn Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project can help it. This first phase will see 300 million cubic metres of water pumped 180km from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea annually, with construction due to start this year. Of course, this could potentially change the unique mineral content of the Dead Sea’s water. But if it goes ahead as planned, you should be able to get that floating-while-reading-a-newspaper snap for many a year yet.

Sundarbans Bangladesh and India

Slide through this watery mangrove forest in a canoe and you may see a ripple beneath the surface. It could as easily be a freshwater dolphin as a Bengal tiger, the only big cat that’s as comfortable swimming as it is slinking through the muddy swamps of this curious waterworld. The 10,000 sq km of deltaland where the Bay of Bengal mingles with the Ganges, Meghna and Brahmaputra rivers has always been prey to tides so dramatic that about a third of the land disappears and reappears every day. Except these days, it doesn’t necessarily reappear. The area’s geography is shifting fast.

A recent study by Jadavpur University suggests that 5.5 per cent of the mangrove forest has already vanished, while some islands such as Ghoramara have permanently lost half of their land since 1965. Seas in the area are rising by up to 12mm a year (compared to the global average of 2mm), causing dramatic flooding and extreme tides that swallow whole villages at a time. Thousands of people who once made a living by fishing in this Unesco World Heritage Site have been displaced already, many forced to relocate inland. It means key habitats are disappearing, too. In a 2015 study, just 200 tigers were thought to be living in the Sundarbans, a sharp drop from the 440 recorded in the 2004 census.

The culprits are that deadly trio which crop up time and again: poverty linked hunting, deforestation and our dependence on fossil fuels. While we can all take responsibility for cutting CO2 emissions in our own lives (and rely on governments to champion a green agenda), ultimately it will fall to international bodies like the United Nations to demand a significant decrease in the use of fossil fuels from their member states. At a grassroots level, there are plenty of initiatives underway to try and extend the area’s lifespan. The Sundarban Biosphere Reserve is planting the newly exposed mudflats with fast-growing trees which local people can use for fuel, removing some of the need for illegal logging. The World Bank has supported the government in training a small army’s worth of patrols to crack down on illegal poaching, while the WWF has funded solar panels in some of the more remote villages to provide affordable energy for the poorest locals. However, with the water rising so quickly, it looks like the Sundarbans is somewhere that belongs at the top of your bucket list if you want to see it before it changes forever.

The Great Barrier Reef Australia

Look down on the Earth from space and the only living organism you’ll be able to see will be this behemothic reef pulsing with life off the coast of Queensland. Spread over 344,400 sq km (a landmass bigger than Italy), it is home to more fish, coral and turtle species than anywhere else on the planet. From above, it’s a turquoise and iris wonderland of cream-coloured islands and azure pools. Plunge below the surface to discover psychedelic sponge gardens, reefs and sea meadows cropped by gentle dugongs with bovine eyes. However, the lifespan of this unique seascape is far from assured.

According to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, warming seas caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is its biggest threat. The last two years have seen unprecedented back-to-back bleaching events compounded by a series of tropical cyclones and an unusually warm El Niño current. The result is that more than half of the reef’s corals have died since 2016. If greenhouse gas levels continue to rise at the current rate, bleaching could happen every two years by 2034, according to a new study from Climate Council – a trauma that no coral system could survive.

So will this magical landscape and the many exotic creatures who call it home – not to mention the £3.5bn it adds to the Aussie economy from toursim every year – sink without a trace? The answer could be yes, unless we can prevent global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5C annually, which is the aim of 2015’s Paris Agreement. The good news is that there are plenty of projects underway to help it become more resilient in the short term, too, which scientists hope will buy it time while the world’s superpowers try to hit this target. These range from programmes designed to protect specific species, to researching the perfect surface conditions for coral and trying to reproduce them artificially, which The Novel Surfaces project has already begun working on with some success.

Maldives South Asia

If ever a country’s reputation was diametrically opposed to its size, it’s the Maldives. These sandy specks floating in the Indian Ocean are the closest most of us will come to paradise. The pearl-coloured beaches and verdant coconut groves have shone out from desktop screensavers the world over, making stressed-out urbanites dream of crystalline water and the smell of barbecued snapper floating in the air. However, the future of this island nation is looking murky. Its main environmental enemies are soft soil, which leads to extremely high surface erosion, and steadily rising sea levels. It’s a lethal combination for a country whose average height is just 1.5m above sea level. According to a new study by Science Advances, the Maldives and thousands of Pacific archipelagos could be uninhabitable by the middle of this century if emissions continue to rise at the current speed.

Rising sea levels not only mean islands could be flooded for much of the year, they also contaminate the water supply and make farming impossible. Previous presidents have even looked into buying a land in Australia so the 300,000 citizens can flee if the country is finally swallowed up. So is it all doom and gloom? Possibly not. A new government led by Abdulla Yameen is taking a controversial approach to keeping the country above water. Residents from some of the most remote islands are being relocated to larger ones, leaving the land free to be sold to luxury resorts.

The government’s Marine Research Centre argues that this is the best solution, as money is needed to fight climate change – plus resorts are legally required to protect the coral around them, effectively turning them into mini marine reserves. Money from tourism is central to other government schemes, too. Islands such as Hulhumale are being geo-engineered by pumping sand from nearby atolls and layering it on top of shallow reefs, while existing land is being artificially reclaimed. Taking a holiday here means that your spend could be central in preventing the Maldives from becoming a modern-day Atlantis.

The Congo Basin Africa

Adventure into the primeval wilderness of the Congo Basin– a mosaic of savannah, rainforest and swamp the size of Mexico – and it’s easy to imagine that you are the first human to set eyes on this mystical wilderness. However, just because you can’t see them, doesn’t mean its residents can’t see you. The area is home to more than 200 tribes, many of whom still follow a traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle. A rustle in the bushes could be a Bayaka warrior tracking his next meal with a bow and arrow or it could be an endangered lowland mountain gorilla. But how much longer can this delicate ecosystem maintain its equilibrium under the pressures of modern life? According to a new study in Science Advances, if the illegal bushmeat trade continues at this pace, half of the gorilla population and numerous other species will have disappeared by 2040, which will have major knock-on effects.

Despite the fact that it is rich in oil and minerals such as diamonds, the basin expands into six of Africa’s poorest countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Equatorial Guinea. For many remote communities, exporting illegal bushmeat is the only way they know to make a living. It’s a serious problem: in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, one million tonnes of illegal bushmeat is eaten and shipped every year. Another problem is deforestation, for palm oil, timber and rubber. The WWF predicts that only few blocks of the region’s forest will remain for 50 years; a bleak prediction for the endemic plants and people who depend on it. Thankfully, there is hope.

Through the hard work of major charities such as Greenpeace and the WWF, 4.8m hectares of the Congo Basin has been FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified, meaning that sustainable logging practices are in place. In 2009 TRAFFIC (the wildlife trade monitoring network) and the Democratic Republic of Congo government drew up a National Action Plan to find alternatives to the illegal bushmeat trade and it is starting to pay off. The number of mountain gorillas in the Virunga National Park increased from 380 to 480 over the last decade. Gorilla-focused tourism is key to giving local communities an income which protects their forest home, rather than destroying it. So book the trip of a lifetime and give our closest relatives on earth the chance of a better future.

Madagascan Rainforest Madagascar

The evolution of the fourth largest island in the world is like an experiment conducted by an eccentric professor: release more than 250,000 species of animals and plants on a piece of land the size of France and leave them to develop undisturbed for millions of years. The result is dancing lemurs, giraffe weevils and bulbous baobab trees. In fact, 80 per cent of the island’s wildlife is endemic. It is so remote it managed to float undiscovered for 300,000 years, which explains why so many of these creatures have survived in the natural habitats that spawned them. However, in the 2,000 years since humans arrived, 16 species of lemur, rotund pygmy hippos and the biggest bird ever to walk the planet have faded quietly away without a trace.

What will be next? Scientists suggest that up to 90 per cent of Madagascar’s rainforests have already disappeared due to deforestation and it’s a depressing thought that many of its endemic species could be extinct before they’re even discovered. According to Wild Madagascar, the main issue is poverty and the lack of education that goes with it. The World Bank reports that 80 per cent of the population survives on less than £1.44 a day and it has the highest proportion of unschooled children of any country in the world. Many locals scratch out a living using a farming system called tavy, which sees a few acres of forest cut and burned, before being planted with rice for a year and left fallow for up to six years, which is not enough time for the trees to recover.

Not only does tavy often lead to forest fires, which destroy yet more key habitats, it also results in soil erosion of up to 400 tonnes every year, a vicious cycle for a country where 80 per cent of people rely on agriculture as their primary source of income. One answer lies in making the preservation of the incredible natural resources more profitable for locals than their destruction. Responsible tourism could be the answer and a promising start has already been made. Madagascar National Parks (a not-for-profit which manages Madagascar’s protected areas) splits half of every visitor’s entry fee with nearby communities and it’s illegal for tourists to enter protected areas without employing a local guide at an extra cost. Spend your Malagasy ariary on schemes that support the people who call it home and the forests of Madagascar could still be echoing with the call of the indri by the time the next generation visits.

Bordeaux's Vineyards France

If all this thinking about the effects of climate change has ruffled your feathers and you’re in need of a soothing glass of St-Émilion, sorry, there’s more unwelcome news. Scientists predict that there could be a two-thirds fall in production in the world’s most famous wine-growing region over the next 40 years if shifts in temperature, sunshine and rainfall continue. French vintners have noticed this and a landgrab has started on the English south coast as they look to buy up land that has the same soil type as the Champagne region and a climate that is starting to look increasingly like that of central France. The area of vineyards in the UK has doubled since 2009 and is set to double again by 2020, so while this may mean you can get your vineyard fix closer to home in the future, we suggest you act now if you want to sit in the garden of a châteaux sipping sauternes and enjoying the legendary French region in its prime.