Top 10 Places To Visit While They're Still Here!

Flying to New York City may be expensive, but at least you can take your time to save up for the trip — the Big Apple isn’t going anywhere. However, there are places in the world that are disappearing as you are reading this article, making it is a race against time to see all of them! Why not make these as part of your places to visit to kick start an amazing year?

1. Maldives - the sunny side of life

 The continually rising sea levels may soon engulf this beautiful group of islands in the Indian Ocean. With an average elevation of just under five feet (1.5 metres) above sea level, Maldives is the lowest-lying country on Earth. The risk of being submerged has become so great that the government has started to buy land in countries such as India to house its citizens — just in case.

2. The Great Barrier Reef

 An iconic attraction on Australia east coast, the Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world, and at 345,000 square kilometres is larger than the United Kingdom and Ireland combined. It is home to 1,500 species of tropical fish and a diverse range of corals, but research suggests that coral cover there has declined drastically over the last 30 years due to rising ocean temperatures and pollution.  

3. Venice


Thanks to its charming canals, this Italian city has long been heralded as one of the most romantic cities in the world. But with global warming and rising sea levels, the city, built on a marshy lagoon in the Adriatic Sea, is sinking, while increasingly severe floods strike each year. Venice could be left uninhabitable by this century’s end.

4. Galápagos Islands 

 Sitting in the Pacific Ocean, the Galápagos Islands are an archipelago off the coast of Ecuador in South America. On these volcanic islands live myriad species of wildlife, including giant tortoises and marine iguanas. However, with more than 200,000 touristsdropping by each year, the ecosystem there and the people who depend on it for their livelihoods are threatened. 

 5. Glaciers in the Alps

 The Alps, located across eight alpine countries in Europe, are famous for their beautiful glaciers, but they are disappearing rapidly, no thanks to global warming. As the Alps are at a lower altitude than other mountain ranges, the glaciers there could melt faster than many others, and are predicted to melt and disappear by 2050. 

 6. The Dead Sea
 

  The Dead Sea, which borders Jordan and Israel is the lowest continental point on Earth and is sinking rapidly — at a rate of one metre per year. The culprits are neighbouring countries tapping from the River Jordan, which is the Dead Sea’s only water source. The plunging water level and the increasing rampant use of the natural resources of this highly saline body of water is likely to dry it out. 

 7. The Amazon Rainforest

 This vast region in South America, described as the “lungs of the planet”, spans across eight developing countries, including Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. It contains more than half the world’s 10 million species of plants, insects and animals, but unfortunately, deforestation has brutally destroyed vast tracts of tall, stately trees, resulting in the destruction of different ecosystems. Despite deforestation slowing down for some years, studies have shown that the trend is unfortunately not continuing and giant swathes of land are in peril. Scientists are lobbying for the Amazon Rainforest to boost its protected area from its current 40 percent to 90 percent. 

 8. Northern Lights
 

 The Aurora Borealis — more commonly known as the Northern Lights — run on an estimated 11-year solar cycle. You can still see them within the next decade, but they are expected to appear less frequently or even move south from the arctic, due to the weakening magnetic field of the Earth, according to recent studies. These amazing light shows will still be strong in 2016, so head to Tromsø in Norway to catch them. 

 9. Twelve Apostles  

 The Twelve Apostles is the name for a collection of limestone stacks off the shore by the Great Ocean Road, in the Australian state of Victoria. Although still known as the Twelve Apostles, there are currently just eight stacks remaining. Erosion by crashing waves has caused them to erode by two centimetres a year. Eventually, there will be none left. 

 10. Belize Barrier Reef
 

 Like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Belize Barrier Reef, located in central America, is vulnerable and under threat. The largest barrier reef in the Northern Hemisphere has been the victim of pollution and rising temperatures, resulting in coral bleaching and the loss of 50 percent of its coral.