Venezuela's last glacier faces extinction: A global warning sign

Initially, scientists estimated it would survive several more decades. Unfortunately, recent studies have demonstrated that the great glacier is melting alarmingly fast.

There were once six glaciers in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida mountain range of Venezuela. Five of them had vanished by 2011. Since then, the Humboldt Glacier, also known as La Corona, stood alone. Now, it appears that it, too, will disappear.

Climatologists in Venezuela have announced that the only remaining glacier in South America, La Corona in the Andes, has become "too small to still be classified as a glacier." Since 2000, the ice cover on the Venezuelan glacier has significantly diminished, said Dr. Caroline Clason.

An expert from the University of Durham has disclosed that Humboldt has been redefined as an ice field. Venezuela is thus poised to be the first country in the world to lose all its glaciers.

Prof. Mark Maslin of the University of London, quoted by the BBC, explained that an ice field, such as Humboldt, roughly the size of two soccer fields, does not qualify as a glacier.

The latest forecasts indicate that by 2100, depending on the region, 20 to 80 percent of glaciers worldwide could vanish. Climatologist Maximiliano Herrera suggests that Indonesia, Mexico, and Slovenia are the next countries at risk of losing all their glaciers. Record high temperatures recorded in recent months in many regions of these countries could further accelerate the melting of glaciers.

One cause is global warming. Scientists from the National Geological Institute believe the current warming trend will likely peak towards the end of this century.

Source: BBC/"The Guardian"/PAP