Burning Libraries: Environmental Impacts on Heritage and Science

The past decade has seen increasing concern expressed worldwide about the multiple challenges posed by global environmental change to human heritage and the archaeological record. Rising sea levels, increasing storminess, increasing wildfire, warming soil temperatures in the circumpolar north and at high elevations are all impacting the archaeological record in ways never seen before. This generation will see the destruction of thousands of sites--some already famous and of recognized heritage value and others that are exposed by one storm only to be destroyed by the next. At the same time, archaeology is increasingly recognized as a global change science that is making significant contributions to resource management, environmental conservation, and more effective scenario building for a genuinely sustainable future. Just as our resources are becoming recognized as a "distributed observing network of the past" -- as multiple libraries of Alexandria rich with data for many disciplines -- we are realizing the extent and urgency of the threat. Our libraries are on fire right now.