“The disappearance of the final glacier in Venezuela is a mirror of what’s going to occur in Colombia and Ecuador” – 2024-05-29 00:51:53

“It makes us very unhappy as a result of Mérida has at all times been the Metropolis of Everlasting Snow.”

These are the phrases of Luis Daniel Llambi, a researcher on the College of the Andes (Mérida, Venezuela) who has been learning the Humboldt Glacier for years, situated within the Mérida mountain vary, a mountain vary in southwest Venezuela that’s a part of the Andes.

The Venezuelan ecologist thus responds to information that has saddened the Venezuelan scientific group and the inhabitants basically.

Initially of Might, the Worldwide Cryospheric Local weather Initiative (ICCI), a corporation that displays the frozen and snowy areas of the planet, assured on the X community (previously generally known as Twitter) that the final Venezuelan glacier, generally known as Humboldt or La Corona, had change into “too small to be labeled as a glacier“.

“This makes Venezuela the primary nation within the Andes mountain vary to lose all its glaciers,” the publication states.

Regardless of being situated within the tropics, Initially of the final century, Venezuela had at the least 5 glaciersdue to the peak of its Andean mountains that rise as much as 5,007 meters above sea degree.

The primary glacial data of the Sierra Nevada date once more to 1910, when the Venezuelan engineer and naturalist Alfredo Jahn mapped the realm and indicated that the glaciers lined an space of ​​at the least 10 sq. kilometers.

They have been distributed on the peaks Bolívar, Bonpland, La Concha, Espejo and Humboldt.

Humboldt Peak in 2008, Mérida state, Venezuela.

At present on the prime of Humboldt “there’s solely a patch of ice” that doesn’t have the dynamics of a glacier, in line with Llambi.

The ice on Humboldt has been declining because the Nineteen Seventies, however its melting has accelerated dramatically since 2016.

Of the ten kilometers of glacial floor that lined the Venezuelan Andes in 1910, lower than 1% at present stays.

50% in 4 years

Llambi and his crew carried out a number of expeditions within the Sierra Nevada de Mérida in 2019 and located that at the moment the glacier measured round 4 hectares.

“On the final go to we made in December 2023, there have been lower than two hectares left. That signifies that between 2019 and 2023, The glacier misplaced 50% of its floor“Llambi tells BBC Mundo.

The Humboldt or La Corona glacier, the final one in Venezuela, on March 11, 2022.

“It is vitally unhappy. On that final go to, we weren’t even positive we might see snow on the height once more, so we have been glad to see there was some left.”

Though there is no such thing as a international measurement that determines the minimal dimension that an ice mass will need to have to be thought of a glacier, america Geological Survey (USGS) states {that a} extensively accepted dimension is “round of 10 hectares.”

“As much as the final sq. meter”

“The ice on the Humboldt Glacier is near disappearing utterly and as a consequence of its present dimension some marvel whether it is nonetheless a glacier or not“Jorge Luis Ceballos, a glaciologist on the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Research (IDEAM) of Colombia and an knowledgeable on the glaciers of the Andes mountain vary, tells BBC Mundo.

“Technically, in line with glaciology, it’s not a glacier. To be thought of as such, it wants a minimal dimension, motion, and snow feeding, traits that Humboldt not has,” continues Ceballos, who stands out inside the Colombian scientific group for being the one glaciologist within the nation.

“However it’s a definition that every nation can adapt or select to not agree with,” he explains, earlier than including that international locations like Argentina and Chile depend their glaciers as these plenty of ice bigger than one hectare.

“People who measure lower than one hectare are faraway from the listing. However for me and plenty of others, even these items of ice smaller than one hectare are nonetheless glaciers as a result of This ice has nice scientific, cultural, environmental, panorama and even non secular worth for some Andean communities.“.

Comparative picture displaying the progressive disappearance of the snow-capped Santa Isabel volcano, in Colombia, from 2005 to 2023.

Ceballos affirms that, because the particular person in control of calculating glacial areas in Colombia, he measures each little bit: “They’re all necessary.”

“For me, the La Corona glacier remains to be a glacier. “Each final sq. meter will stay a glacier.”

The glaciologist believes that the difficulty shouldn’t be whether or not or not it’s a glacier, however fairly to attract consideration and notice that it’s the “final relic of ice in Venezuela” and that it’s actually disappearing as a consequence of growing temperatures.

Colombia and Ecuador with out glaciers in three many years

A chilly, snowy local weather at excessive altitudes is important for glaciers to exist within the tropics.

A lot of the Earth’s tropical glaciers are discovered within the Andes of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

Scientists, who’ve lengthy predicted the demise of Humboldt, estimate that rising temperatures will even go away Colombia and Ecuador no glaciers by 2050.

“The disappearance of the final glacier in Venezuela is a mirror of what’s going to occur in Colombia and Ecuador,” agrees Venezuelan knowledgeable Luis Daniel Llambi.

A lot of the worldwide scientific group maintains that the terrestrial cryosphere – the elements of the Earth the place water is in a stable state – has been shrinking because the Eighties.

The glaciers of the northern Andes, generally known as “equatorial glaciers,” have been of essentially the most delicate to local weather change as a consequence of its tropical location.

Snow-capped volcano Santa Isabel, Colombia, in September 2023.

At present, Colombia hosts six glaciers masking 33 sq. kilometersin line with IDEAM.

The snowy Santa Isabel volcano, situated within the espresso area, is the smallest of the group with round 20 hectares at present.

“We at IDEAM estimate that this glacier will change into extinct within the subsequent 5 or 7 years,” says glaciologist Jorge Luis Ceballos.

Mexico and Bolivia additionally in peril

On the Latin American degree, scientists estimate that Mexico Will probably be the subsequent nation to expire of glaciers.

Within the nation there are solely 5 glaciers unfold throughout the inactive Iztaccíhuatl volcano and the Pico de Orizaba. Collectively they cowl lower than a sq. kilometer of ice.

In keeping with the Earth Sciences Heart of the Universidad Veracruzana and the College of Texas at San Antonio, The Jamapa glacier, the most important within the nation, misplaced 60% of its floor between 1950 and 2011.

Consultants guarantee that it is going to be utterly extinct by 2030 and that by 2050 Mexico can have misplaced all its glaciers.

To the south of the continent, the lack of glaciers will proceed to advance from north to south, in line with Ceballos.

“First Venezuela. “I believe the Humboldt Glacier has months left earlier than it’s utterly extinct,” she estimates.

Then they’ll observe Colombia and Ecuadorin line with the knowledgeable.

“Other than the Santa Isabel in Colombia, the Carihuayrazo in Ecuador can be on the verge of extinction, and we are able to see the identical in a number of glaciers in Bolivia,” he provides.

Between 20 and 80% of the glaciers on the planet

However past the Andes and Latin America, the disappearance of glaciers has change into a world downside.

Glaciologist Jorge Luis Ceballos assures that on the planet the subsequent international locations to expire of glaciers will likely be Indonesia and Slovenia.

Glaciologists James Kirkham and Miriam Jackson advised the BBC that the most recent projections present the world will lose between 20 and 80% of its glaciers by 2100, with vital regional variation, and that the proportion will rely on whether or not they shrink or not CO2 emissions.

They added that though “a few of this loss is already assured,” a fast discount in CO2 emissions may save different glacial deposits, “which can have huge advantages for livelihoods and power, water and meals safety.”

Mark Maslin, professor of earth system sciences at College School London, factors out that the lack of bigger glaciers represents an enormous downside for a lot of communities whose freshwater provide depends upon these giant plenty of ice, particularly in periods of drought. .

From Mérida, Llambi affirms that no matter whether or not the Humboldt remains to be thought of a glacier or not, “it’s a mass of ice” that has a “crucial” cultural and scientific that means for his group and that’s the reason many refuse to declare it extinct till that it doesn’t disappear utterly.

“However that can occur very quickly,” he admits, including that in the long run local weather change will finish the snow in Mérida, a small Andean metropolis that for a very long time was generally known as the Metropolis of Everlasting Snows.