At least two countries have lost all their glaciers

At least two countries have lost all their glaciers

By Francisco “AJ” Camacho & E&E News

CLIMATE FEED | Slovenia and Venezuela are the first two countries to lose their last glaciers in a period of human-induced climate change – but they won’t be the last.

Some media outlets reported this month that Venezuela could be the first country in modern times to lose all its glaciers. However, researchers told E&E News that Slovenia likely claimed this solemn title more than three decades ago.

“Both glacial remnants have not moved, (and) no glacial crevasses have been observed in recent decades – these features define real glaciers,” Miha Pavšek, who leads ice measurements on Mount Triglav and the Skuta peak in Slovenia with the Anton Melik Geographical. Institute, told E&E News.

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Melting glaciers are one of the iconic consequences of human-caused climate change, and even Arctic countries like Iceland have lost entire glaciers. But Slovenia and Venezuela appear to be the first countries since the 18th century to lose their last glaciers. It comes as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change expects 18 to 36 percent of the world’s ice mass to disappear over the 21st century, largely due to global warming.

A post from May on Xformerly Twitter, climatologist Maximiliano Herrera drew attention to the decline of La Corona – Venezuela’s last glacier – by citing December measurements from the University of Los Andes showing a remaining area of ​​0.02 square kilometers.

“The disappearance of all of Venezuela’s glaciers is a national tragedy,” Julio César Centeno, a professor at the University of Los Andes who has studied glaciers, said in an email to E&E News. “This is a wake-up call about the avalanche of additional effects that will occur in the short term in the country due to global warming.”

But Slovenia and Venezuela probably lost their last glaciers years earlier.

There is no universally accepted death point for a glacier, and no international organization is recognized as an authority on glacier classification. But Centeno said “the minimum size of a glacier is 0.1 (square kilometer).” The United States Geological Survey also uses this threshold and states that it is “the commonly accepted guideline.”

In Slovenia, Skuta has been less than 0.1 square kilometers since at least 1969, and Triglav fell below this threshold in 1986. La Corona in Venezuela likely lost its glacial status in 2016.

Pavšek and Centeno say that beyond the size threshold, the remaining glaciers in Slovenia and Venezuela no longer act as before.

“Two fundamental characteristics of real glaciers are their movement and the presence of glacial crevasses,” Pavšek said, adding that neither Triglav nor Skuta had any “in recent decades.” The amount of ice at Triglav’s summit is equivalent to “the area of ​​two volleyball courts”, while Skuta’s shady location allowed it to double that area: 0.01 square kilometers.

The low altitude and latitude of the two glaciers made them “more vulnerable to climate extremes” and they succumbed to “rising temperatures,” Pavšek said. The Anton Melik Geographical Institute expects both peaks to be ice-free by 2030.

Centeno said that after further melting in 2022, La Corona in Venezuela is a shell of its former glacial status. The Corona, he says, is “an unburied corpse in an advanced state of decomposition.”

The loss of these glaciers and those that follow will have serious environmental consequences.

Slovenian glaciers are melting into the Black Sea and La Corona is spilling into the Caribbean, contributing to sea level rise that is expected to wreak havoc on coastal communities.

“It is also a clear and resounding warning to the rest of Latin America,” Centeno said. “The consequences of the inevitable loss of glaciers in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia will have a social impact far greater than that of Venezuela, due to the dependence of many larger populations on sources of water. water dependent on these glaciers. »

Mexico’s last glacier, Gran Norte, is expected to lose its status between 2026 and 2033 and disappear completely by 2045. Its runoff has provided water to downstream communities for centuries.

La Corona was the last of the “Five White Eagles” – glaciers that capped the mountains above the city of Mérida. Centeno sees his disappearance as a call to action against climate change: “What are we waiting for to act?

“Mérida is no longer the city of eternal snow. The Five White Eagles have disappeared. We destroyed them, annihilated them. They are among the first Venezuelan victims of global warming. Many others gather at the gates of extermination. Not only plants, animals, water sources and fertile soils, but also humans, many humans,” Centeno said.

Reprinted from E&E News courtesy of POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News provides essential information for energy and environmental professionals.