Colombia Expected To Lose All Andean Glaciers In 25 Years - Reuters

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BOGOTA (AlertNet) - Colombia's glaciers are melting so fast that within 25 years they are all expected to disappear, a leading government environmental official has said. Glacier retreat in the Andean nation, caused by rising temperatures, is a growing concern as modelling and data collected from satellite imagery and weather stations show that Colombia's glaciers are consistently shrinking at an accelerating rate.

"There's been a sharp downward trend in snow coverage of several of Colombia's big glaciers particularly since 1985. If current rates continue, Colombia won't have any glaciers left by 2035," said Ricardo Lozano, head of the Colombian Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM).

Lozano, speaking at a conference on climate change in Bogota on Monday, added that "there's a 90 percent probability that the predictions are correct".

El Cocuy national park in northeast Colombia has the highest concentration of glacial peaks in the country. Today, three of the park's 25 glaciers have no snow covering them. "In 1960, there was 37 km of snow covering El Cocuy's glaciers. Today that figure is around 22 km," said Lozano.

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http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/59877/2009/08/22-171019-1.htm