*[Enwl-eng] Warming could erase world's sacred sites
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No images? Click here  A catastrophic wildfire that swept the Hawaiian island of Maui last week has claimed 106 lives – but with 1,300 people still reported missing, the true toll of this disaster has yet to be confirmed. The town of Lahaina on Maui's west coast was hit particularly hard, and with its destruction comes the loss of irreplaceable Native Hawaiian heritage. You're reading the Imagine newsletter – a weekly synthesis of academic insight on solutions to climate change, brought to you by The Conversation. I'm Jack Marley, energy and environment editor. This week, we're discussing the threat of climate change to some of humanity's most treasured places. "[Maui] has been revered by its Indigenous peoples as a sacred place for generations. In the 19th century, it served as the home and burial place of the Hawaiian royal family and became the first capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom," says Rosalyn R. LaPier, professor of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Lahaina, 80% of which was destroyed in the recent fire, is the home of Kihawahine, a woman who transformed into a mo‘o goddess (a guardian of a freshwater pond) and might take the form of a shapeshifting lizard according to Hawaiian religion. A fishpond at Mokuʻula, a small island in Lahaina, was considered Kihawahine's residence, which Hawaiian royalty lived close to. US colonists and sugarcane capitalists diverted freshwater springs in Lahaina for irrigation, drying up the sacred pond which was later filled in to create a park in the early 20th century. Efforts were underway to restore Mokuʻula and revitalise its history as a sacred place for Native Hawaiians, LaPier says. The fire could derail this process. "As an Indigenous scholar who studies the environment and religion of Indigenous peoples, I am interested in how environmental change such as the catastrophic wildfire at Lahaina impacts sacred sites," LaPier says. Lahaina's history shows how sacred sites were threatened by colonialism before they were imperilled by climate change. LaPier quotes Carmen Hulu Lindsey, the chair of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, who blames "the fires of today [on] the climate crisis, a history of colonialism in our islands, and the loss of our right to steward our ‘aina and wai’ [land and water].” In the Indian Himalayas at Kedarnath, the survival of a stone temple amid surging flood waters in 2013 was interpreted by some as a divine message. Kedarnath sits at the base of a 20,000-feet peak in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is a pilgrimage site for millions, containing a conical rock formation worshipped as an embodied form of the Hindu god Shiva. But it was wracked by tragedy a decade ago when heavy rain caused the Mandakini River to burst its banks and a rubble dam holding back glacial melt water suddenly breached. "Glacial deterioration is happening worldwide, but subtropical glaciers in high mountainous areas such as the Indian Himalayas are more vulnerable because of their low latitudes," says David L. Haberman, professor emeritus of religious studies at Indiana University. "Many climate scientists believe that climate change is affecting the Himalayas more than almost any other region of the world." Within 15 minutes, a deluge amounting to half the volume of Niagara Falls descended on Kedarnath. More than 6,000 people are thought to have died, many of them pilgrims. Yet an oblong boulder fell in just the right place to part the waters and save the temple. "Every other building in the town of Kedarnath was demolished," Haberman says. When climate disasters destroy or spare sacred sites such as Kedarnath, the result can be a realisation of all that global heating threatens to erase. Haberman discovered in his conversations with local people that it can also recast the problem of climate change in spiritual terms. "There is no great difference between treating the gods with respect and nature well," he says. "A woman I spoke to in Uttarkashi elaborated on this: 'The gods and the land are the same. And we are mistreating both. The floods are like a warning slap to a child. They are a wake-up call telling us to change our ways ... If not, we will be finished.'" Refuges under siege Undisturbed by axes and ploughs for hundreds or even thousands of years, sacred sites also tend to be havens for wildlife. John Healey (Bangor University), John Halley and Kalliopi Stara (both University of Ioannina) are ecologists who studied biodiversity at sacred village groves in the mountainous region of Epirus in northwestern Greece. The trio compared the species living in these groves with conventionally managed forests. The groves contained twice as many songbirds and significantly more fungi – as dead wood or old trees typically adorned with mushrooms are often cleared during forest management. "These places can act as a nucleus, around which biodiversity can expand," they say. "In Epirus, forests have regenerated around many of the sites we studied over the past 70 years – despite humans farming the land." The benefits to biodiversity from the protection of sacred sites offer another reason to cherish and preserve them. But research shows how threatened many of these places are: rising sea levels could consume 70% of Africa's heritage sites as early as 2050. The incalculable loss to cultures and faiths worldwide motivate many demands on rich countries to compensate the developing world for the crisis their emissions have overwhelmingly created. Reflecting on the devastation at Lahaina, LaPier takes heart from the perseverance of Native Hawaiian culture. "The historic buildings and cultural properties of this place will be forever lost," LaPier says. "But the stories of Kihawahine and Hawaiian sacred places will live on." - Jack Marley, Environment commissioning editor Was this email forwarded to you? Join the 20,000 people who get one email every week about the most important issue of our time. Subscribe to Imagine.  The region of Maui has been revered by its Indigenous peoples as a sacred place for generations. It is believed to be the home of Kihawahine, a woman who transformed into a goddess.  Threat from climate change to some of India’s sacred pilgrimage sites is reshaping religious beliefs At the pilgrimage site of Kedarnath in northern India, disastrous flooding has led many to ask whether the gods are getting angry about human behaviour.  Sacred sites have a biodiversity advantage that could help world conservation Many sacred sites such as temples, and churchyards are havens for biodiversity.  Rising sea levels may threaten 70% of Africa’s heritage sites by 2050 Hundreds of Africa's heritage sites are exposed to sea-level rise and coastal erosion in the future.  Poorer countries must be compensated for climate damage. But how exactly do we crunch the numbers? Extreme weather events are complex – and working out exactly how much damage climate change caused is a tricky task.  Turning to faiths to save the planet. How religions shape environmental movement in Indonesia The problems of climate change are not only problems of science and technology. They are also moral, ethical and spiritual problems about how we live our lives. Latest from The Conversation on climate change
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