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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/27/ice-water-colombia-looks-to-a-future-without-glaciers>
"At an altitude of 4,200 metres in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Colombia,
Edilsa Ibáñez Ibáñez lowers a cupped hand into the water of a glacial stream. A
local guide and mountaineer, she has grown up drinking water that runs down
from the snowy peaks above. As she stands up, however, the landscape that
greets her is markedly different from that of her childhood.
“We used to think the ice would be eternal,” says Ibáñez, 45. “Now it is not so
eternal. Our glaciers are dying.”
The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy is one of six remaining glaciers in Colombia.
Although it has lost more than 90% of its ice since the second half of the 19th
century, Ibáñez says it contains about 36% of the country’s total glacial
coverage.
Swaths of dry rock now are exposed in areas once carpeted in snow in the high
Sierra Nevada peaks. On the trail leading to the Cóncavo peak, stone markers
have been placed like gravestones to indicate the position of the snow line in
years past. The farthest marker, dating from the end of the 19th century, is
now several kilometres from the nearest ice.
The peak itself presents a similarly grim picture. Fingers of greying ice slide
towards the rocky mass below, where frozen boulders soften and thaw in the
harsh sun. Deep within the glacier, the shifting ice emits loud cracks that
rattle through the thin air above.
Although the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy is home to the largest glacial mass in the
country, it is far from alone in its fate. Rising global temperatures and
increasingly unpredictable weather patterns are devastating all six of
Colombia’s remaining glaciated areas.
In 2024 neighbouring Venezuela became the first country in modern history to
lose all its glaciers, and some predict that Colombia could go the same way in
as little as 30 years.
“Even if we were to very aggressively over the next 10 to 20 years reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, it wouldn’t be enough,” says Mathias Vuille, a
professor of atmospheric and environmental sciences at the University ofat
Albany, who has been studying the climate crisis in the Andes for more than 30
years. “They aren’t accumulating any fresh snow and ice any more – they are
doomed.”
Colombia’s lowest-lying glacier, Santa Isabel in Los Nevados national park, far
west of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, will probably be the first to disappear.
According to data from the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology, and
Environmental Studies (Ideam), the glacier it will probably be gone within five
years."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
