Peru's glaciers melting

[Judi Lynn]

Peru's glaciers melting
'Pakistan Times' Wire Service

LIMA: Peru's glaciers are melting at an increasing rate due to global warming, say scientists, who warn that by 2015 almost all of its glaciers will have disappeared.

Scientists said Peru's Qori Kalis glacier is retreating faster than at any other time in at least 5,000 years and predicts it will disappear within five years.

Peru is home to 70 per cent of the world's glaciers; their disappearance will create problems for local communities.

Immediate threats include flooding caused by the melting glaciers and accompanying landslides, while longer term changes in water supply could lead to loss of crops and livestock. ●

http://www.pakistantimes.net/2008/07/17/top16.htm

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Peru: melting glaciers may induce disaster

Source: CCTV.com | 07-16-2008 11:47

Melting glaciers could spell disaster for Peru. The warning comes from a group of international experts meeting in Peru. Scientists say Andean glaciers are melting so fast they might be gone in 25 years.

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A recent Peruvian report on climate change predicts that by 2025, 70 percent of Andean people will have severe difficulties in accessing clean water sources due to the melting of the glaciers.

The government is so concerned it has started to investigate using desalination plants along the Pacific coast to turn sea water into drinking water.

http://www.cctv.com/english/20080716/103556.shtml

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Andes face glacial meltdown
Melting glaciers in the Andes pose massive threats to the region - yet governments are reluctant to intervene
Guy Edwards guardian.co.uk, Sunday July 13, 2008

Glaciers in Peru are melting so quickly that by 2015 almost all of them may have disappeared. This is not just a problem for Peru but for the whole Andean Community of Nations, including Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador. These countries generate around 73% of their electricity from hydro energy. Ironically, this renewable source of energy risks disappearing because of melting glaciers caused by climate change.

The report, Climate change knows no borders, provides a chilling reminder of the catastrophic impacts of climate change on the Andean region. The evidence predicting the rapid loss of glaciers and a fiercer, more frequent El Niño effect, where ocean temperatures rise along the coasts of Ecuador and Peru, causing droughts and floods, reveals an uncertain and potentially destructive future for the region. The El Niño of 1997/8 had a devastating impact, leaving thousands dead or homeless, crops ruined, roads and bridges left smashed. The bill ran into billions of dollars.

If this wasn't enough, climate change could lead to further losses of up to $30 billion a year by 2025 in the Andean region while the effect of melting glaciers could place 40 million people at risk of losing their water supply.

It seems ironic that the highest number of the Kyoto Protocol's clean development mechanism projects in the Andean Community relate to the resource facing the greatest threat – water. The climatic stresses causing the loss of glaciers, and in turn jeopardising what many regard as a key constituent of rural development through electrification, may result in a vicious cycle. The loss of this vital resource, combined with high prices and scant political enthusiasm for other renewable options – geothermal, wind and solar – may result in countries resorting to an increase in the use of fossil fuels.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/13/climatechange.colombia