Tribewanted: The Andina Diaries – Pastoruri Glacier
Written on November 4, 2008
Photo by Giles Dawnay
In the build up to the exciting events planned next summer we’ll be presenting and inviting a series of blogs about where we will be going and some of the wider implications of events happening in the area we’re going to.
We will be doing our ice climbing on the local glacier Pastoruri (which also happens to be the world largest tropical glacier). This is a spectacular 3 hr bus ride from Huaraz and at an altitude of just over 5000 m’s. This glacier and others in the country are intrinsically linked to current pressing environmental issues. The glaciers in Peru have been receding rapidly for some time now and like Kilimanjaro in Tanzania the ice has been retreating so quickly that some fear there might be a danger of them disappearing altogether in the future. Recent international research by Ohio State glaciologist Lonnie Thompson and a team of scientists has found evidence that the Qori Kalis glacier, part of the Quelccaya ice cap in the southern Peruvian Andes could lose half of its mass in 12 months, in five years it could be gone forever. Pastoruri’s own ice cap shrank nearly 40 percent between 1995 and 2005.
“The lower elevation tropical glaciers are going right now, no matter what we do we’re going to lose the glaciers on [Mount] Kilimanjaro and we’re going to lose the lower elevation glaciers in the Andes,”
- Ohio State glaciologist, Lonnie Thompson
Climate change research has focused on melting glaciers in the north and south poles, but tropical glaciers also play a valuable role in local ecosystems by feeding rivers that supply fresh water to areas like Peru’s arid coast.
Glaciers feed the rivers that feed the sprawling cities and shantytowns on Peru’s bone-dry Pacific coast. Two-thirds of Peru’s 27 million people live on the coast, where just 1.8 percent of the nation’s water supply is found. Shantytowns spring up virtually overnight in the steep, sandy dunes around the capital city of Lima and providing them with water is extremely costly, says Julio Garcia of the National Environment Council, CONAM. Pressure on water resources is only likely to grow as more and more people move to coastal cities like Lima and industry expands. But the source of that water is now increasingly under pressure.
Further reading:
Those who have any queries on Tribewanted: Andina, please drop me a line giles@tribewanted.com
For those interested in the expedition visit www.tribewanted.com/blog/andina
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Tribewanted: The Andina Diaries – Pastoruri Glacier
Photo by Giles Dawnay
In the build up to the exciting events planned next summer we’ll be presenting and inviting a series of blogs about where we will be going and some of the wider implications of events happening in the area we’re going to.
We will be doing our ice climbing on the local glacier Pastoruri (which also happens to be the world largest tropical glacier). This is a spectacular 3 hr bus ride from Huaraz and at an altitude of just over 5000 m’s. This glacier and others in the country are intrinsically linked to current pressing environmental issues. The glaciers in Peru have been receding rapidly for some time now and like Kilimanjaro in Tanzania the ice has been retreating so quickly that some fear there might be a danger of them disappearing altogether in the future. Recent international research by Ohio State glaciologist Lonnie Thompson and a team of scientists has found evidence that the Qori Kalis glacier, part of the Quelccaya ice cap in the southern Peruvian Andes could lose half of its mass in 12 months, in five years it could be gone forever. Pastoruri’s own ice cap shrank nearly 40 percent between 1995 and 2005.
Climate change research has focused on melting glaciers in the north and south poles, but tropical glaciers also play a valuable role in local ecosystems by feeding rivers that supply fresh water to areas like Peru’s arid coast.
Glaciers feed the rivers that feed the sprawling cities and shantytowns on Peru’s bone-dry Pacific coast. Two-thirds of Peru’s 27 million people live on the coast, where just 1.8 percent of the nation’s water supply is found. Shantytowns spring up virtually overnight in the steep, sandy dunes around the capital city of Lima and providing them with water is extremely costly, says Julio Garcia of the National Environment Council, CONAM. Pressure on water resources is only likely to grow as more and more people move to coastal cities like Lima and industry expands. But the source of that water is now increasingly under pressure.
Further reading:
Those who have any queries on Tribewanted: Andina, please drop me a line giles@tribewanted.com
For those interested in the expedition visit www.tribewanted.com/blog/andina
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