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.
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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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Resources
Conserving Cultural Heritage is Vital for Climate Adaptation
Op-Ed about relative invisibility of cultural heritage in the US federal response to climate change, including the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act
Expanding use of archaeology in climate change response by changing its social environment
Initial research into how archaeology can contribute to climate change response and barriers in the US federal government to doing so
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