With the temperatures on Earth rising more every year, Peru’s glaciers are bound to disappear. “With each passing year, as the cold mountain temperatures rise, the ice moves uphill another 20 yards”, says Qatar Tribune.
Américo González, a field helper (ayudante de campo) in the Cordillera Blanca in Peru has been near this glacier all his life. He usually carries equipment for mountaineers or scientists that climb the mountains, and he has seen how the ice that covers their tops has shrunk dramatically in the space of one generation.
“Instead of white, we are seeing stone”, said González to Qatar Tribune, referring to the ice that has been melting away in the glacier. According to this website South America’s glaciers are bound to be the first ones to disappear completely on Earth, and it has to do with their location in the tropics.
“Scientists call them tropical glaciers, ice caps found in places as warm as Ecuador and Indonesia, where high mountain peaks have shielded them for thousands of years from the heat of the jungle below”, Qatar Tribune explains.
Today, those high mountaintops are also at risk of melting away. According to experts, the ice caps have reduced by nearly a quarter in the past 40 years because of the rising temperatures. They predict that within 50 years many of the peaks will no longer have glaciers.
The melting of Peru’s glaciers can also affect crops and water supply in the country.
Don’t Miss:
https://www.livinginperu.com/cctv-perus-glaciers-are-disappearing-threatening-crops-and-water-supply-107153/
https://www.livinginperu.com/melting-glacier-impacts-peruvian-community/
https://www.livinginperu.com/news-national-institute-reports-peru-has-lost-57-of-its-glaciers-111889/
