47. Caracas • Venezuela

We have selected 100 unique places on Earth that are projected to
undergo profound changes within the next few generations.

We based our selection of the 100 places on the 4th Assessment
Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Simply by drawing attention to the beauty of these places, 100 Places to
Remember Before they Disappear creates an argument to preserve
them.

The 100 Places we have chosen to highlight, and the people who
live in them, are in serious danger because of rising sea levels, rising
temperatures and extreme weather events triggered by climate change.

Among ambassadors are Joss Stone, Desmund Tutu for more info visit http://www.100places.com.

The Dangerous Birthplace of El Libertador

Spanish conquistadors harried the indigenous people from this beautiful valley in the north of South America in 1567 and founded Caracas among the green coastal mountains, or Cordillera de la Costa. Some two hundred years later, the city was the birthplace of El Libertador, the common name for Simón Bolívar, who headed the liberation of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Panama from the Spaniards.

The war of independence finally ended in victory in 1821, a decade after Bolívar and his followers had prematurely proclaimed independence in Caracas. A year after the initial rebellion, an earthquake had destroyed the city and transformed the valley into a cemetery, an event viewed by the Spanish as divine retribution. The more prosaic but tragic truth is that the tremor caused landslides to send thousands of tons of soil and debris cascading down the steep mountainsides into the valley. It is a phenomenon that may well recur, caused by torrential rainstorms as well as earthquakes.

Around 4.3 million people live in Caracas, some two million of them in poorly built shanty towns or barrios on the slopes that surround the city, where landslides caused by heavy rain are a chronic problem. In 1999, 30,000 people were killed in one of the Americas worst natural disasters, when several days of rainstorms triggered flash floods, landslides and flows of debris in the coastal zone on the north slopes of Cordillera de la Costa just north of Caracas.

Extreme weather events like hurricanes and heavy rainstorms are projected to hit the region of Caracas and Cordillera de la Costa more frequently in future, and with much greater force. It is not only those living in the shanty towns who face a hazardous future. Floods and landslides pose a serious threat to the centre of Caracas as well, potentially dealing a massive blow to the infrastructure of the Venezuelan capital and its suburbs.

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[djhectorjr]

Podrían ponerle los subtitulos en español???.

[alejreyna]

Si con mucho orgullo para mí Caracas SÍ está en los 100 destinos para recordar.

[Z1Z12]

THE MOON IS FULL AND YOUR GOD IS WATCHING YOUR BAD, SELFISH BEHAVIOUR.--- SWEARWORDS TO YOU ALL --- AMEN..

[rccl36812]

@Ricardoccs7 Wow ! You're so expresive, and foul mouthed !...I thought you were educated, what a mistake...I'm certainly not ignorant, and if any president wants to build 2 million homes for the poor and dissater-grievance people, GOD bless him ! ! ! You, my friend, have a great HATE for Chavez, you must have your reasons. I only comment on the issues and the actions taken...Oh , and I do go to Vzla every 6 months, I'm from Macaracuay in Caracas, so don't think I'm a "Cerro" person.

[Ricardoccs7]

@rccl36812 Brain washed? YOU ARE obviously really ignorant. If he is so great why dont you move to Venezuela or Cuba? He wants a country were everyone is ignorant (like yourself) therefore he can have more power and become a foreboding leader, like he is now. YOU SHOULD OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES, and move to Vzla and stay there for a while and see how that poor country has been debastated by a fucking lunatic whose friend is no other than murders like Gadaffi, Ahmed A. and his so-call buddy FidelC

[rccl36812]

@Ricardoccs7 you're the pathetic one...I live in Baltimore, and why do I have to be ,a so called ,"Chavista" ?....just because I'm not brained washed like most of you guys ?....sorry, I can make my own judgement, and don't need to be "fooled" by any group, people, or establishment to know the truth...Open your eyes and use your brain...try it, you'll like it.

[Ricardoccs7]

@rccl36812 You got to be FUCKING jocking me? I thought you were actually been sarcastic! how sad and how pathetic it is to read just a lame ass message like yours. By the way why are you writing in English? you should be writing in SPANISH if you are fucking Chavista. Where do you live? outside Venezuela probably. Stupid CUNT!

[rccl36812]

That is why our beloved president is building 2,000,000 new residential homes for the .needy ! /Now I'll have to read all the negative comments from all you Chavez haters.

[karolvz1]

@inapproprick si la verdad es asi a mi me encanta caracas siempre he sentido un apego desd pequeña sin conocerla luego fui y me encanto luego volvi a ir en el 2005 luego de 18 años y claro yo llego a chacao donde viven varios familiares pero sabes q descubri q mi mama me concibio alla cuando se mudo aqui tenia 3 meses de embarazo y naci aqui en Barcelona. saludos

[inapproprick]

@karolvz1 Yo no creo que esa cabeza de chorlito sea venezolana...como se puede ser tan vende patria!

[inapproprick]

@soulmidian No, lo dicen porque ellos pronostican que va a tener muchos cambios en el futuro para protegerla de desastres naturales. Por eso es una sitio para ser recordado!