Rock paintings are fading due to climate change

One of the oldest “treasures” that have made it possible to understand science and everyone in general, how life was in prehistory seems to be in danger due to climate change. Let’s see why the world’s oldest cave paintings are fading due to climate change and what can be done about it.The world’s oldest cave paintings are fading due to climate change A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports has highlighted the dramatic consequences of climate change on cave paintings. Taking an analysis of the oldest in the world, located on the island of Sulawesi (Indonesia), it was observed that in recent decades they have been drastically fading due to climatic changes, among the ancient testimonies of our ancestors that have been valued in In the analysis there are some that were created between 39 thousand and 45 thousand years ago in a particular quarry, the Leang Tedongnge, in the Maros-Pangkep region (Sulawesi, Indonesia) .In fact, this area of the island has several prehistoric sites -to date, there are 300 of them- and it has been noted, as early as 1950, that inside there are many representations that have survived tens of thousands of years but are going to fade faster and faster. that the situation is truly tragic, because the process of decomposition of these caves, with their rare prehistoric images attached, seems unstoppable. According to experts, this inevitable phenomenon of erosion is due to the massive presence of different types of salts.Through the use of a number of innovative technologies and chemical analysis of samples, high percentages of calcium sulfate and sodium chloride were found at 11 prehistoric sites in Maros-Pangkep, including the Leang Tedongnge cave. Large amounts is a problem, considering that in recent decades the level of humidity and temperatures have increased disproportionately throughout the area. If these last two factors tend to grow, it is easier for salt crystals to be created that are deposited on the surface of the rocks, causing them to deform and eventually break up. Climate change, as we have seen so many times before, is inevitable throughout history. However, in the last 40 years, human intervention has led to it accelerating dramatically, reaching extremes never recorded until today.To the climate crisis and its consequences, experts say, we must also add the Man’s normal industrial activity on the environment, which, with its increasing need for limestone rocks, is going to threaten even historical sites like those of Maros-Pangkep. Faced with such an emergency situation, the authors of the study took the opportunity to urge international authorities to promote more projects to restore and preserve the remains.