Flooding, sea level rise and erosion. Climate change means that between 200 and 330 cemeteries in the country are threatened and some may have to be moved entirely. It shows preliminary results from a research study carried out at Umeå University.
The cemetery in Alingsås is singled out in a new study as one of the most climate-exposed.
– There, the Säveån flooded in 2011 and then a number of hundred burial sites were being washed into the river, but together with the municipality we built a wall to stop the erosion and the water, says the cemetery manager Alexander Ryman to TV4 Nyheterna.
The researchers have studied 2,822 cemeteries in the country based on different scenarios, in the worst case, 300 cemeteries could have problems already in this century. In the best case scenario, if carbon dioxide emissions are greatly reduced, 200 cemeteries will still be affected. Most of the people at risk are in southern Sweden and the problems can be big, say the researchers.
See an interview with one of the researchers, as well as the cemetery manager Alexander Ryman, in the clip above.