What is it about?

The US first passed legislation to protect cultural heritage more than a century ago. Understandings of what cultural heritage is and why it matters have changed substantially over that time, but US federal programs have not kept up and have contributed to gaps in how the US and other global efforts are attempting to respond to climate change.

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Why is it important?

Cultural heritage is the outcome of centuries and millennia of people living in their environments, connected to places through practice, knowledge, memory, and language. Heritage in many places is being affected by climate change and has capacity to support adaptation and sustainability. However, ways in which heritage and climate change have been defined in US legislation has tended to separate them. This paper explores these histories and relationships and shows some ways in which heritage and climate are and can be brought together.

Perspectives

As an archaeologist and cultural resource manager for many years, I've long wanted data from and about the past to be useful in solving modern environmental challenges, especially climate change. But it's been difficult to find ways and funding to do that and the reasons for these gaps weren't clear. Putting together the histories and ideas in this paper was a such a relief because they help explain where some of the gaps have come from. Closing these gaps won't be easy, but I think and I hope this paper points to some places where it can be done.

Marcy Rockman
University of Maryland at College Park

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Capacity of the U.S. federal system for cultural heritage to meet challenges of climate change, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2317158121.
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