All Peruvian Glaciers Below 18,000 Feet Gone By 2015 - BBC

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The stalactites hang like glass daggers over the glacial lake. Ice peaks rise against the bright blue sky like crystal pyramids.
Mounds of dark rock rise up between the snow and ice, discoloured after years of being covered by the glacier. This is Pastoruri. In the past 10 years, its ice caps have retreated by about 200 metres.

Soon it, like many other glaciers in Peru, will have disappeared almost completely. At about 5,000 metres, or just over 16,000 feet, it is one of the glaciers worst affected by climate change in Peru. And Peru, in turn, is one of the countries worst affected by climate change in the world. Sitting between the tropics, where the sun is particularly fierce, and home to more tropical glaciers than anywhere else, this South American country is especially vulnerable to rising temperatures.

Experts predict all the Peruvian glaciers below 5,500 metres will disappear by 2015. This is the majority of Peru's glaciers. Marco Zapata works at the Institute for National Resources in the Andean town of Huaraz, in northern Peru. He has studied glaciers for more than 30 years and says in that time Peru has lost more than 20% of its glaciers. One of the main reasons why Peru is so vulnerable to climate change has to do with water.

The majority of its population lives in a narrow strip of land between the Andes mountains and the sea. This area is mainly desert and the people who live here receive their water from the mountains. Melting glaciers also provide water for hydroelectricity, industry and farming. Pressure on water resources is only likely to grow as more and more people move to coastal cities like the capital Lima and industry expands. But the source of that water is also under pressure.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4720621.stm

Good thing America's still-unmarried gays can spend their leisure time following the hunt for Natalee!!!!

[formerrepuke]

1. I have the perfect Republican solution: change the current year

to 1905; then we won't have to worry about it for 110 more years!

[Last Lemming]

2. A weird little story

I was in Chile recently and took a jaunt up to one of the glaciers. The glacier had receded several miles (maybe ten miles?) but that happened between 1900-1940. Now the glacier is getting a little bit larger.

Weird

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3. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is growing slightly thicker, too

The climatologists think that most of it's caused by increased evaporation elsewhere coming down in some areas.

On balance, though, the trend is overwhelmingly on the melting side.