CARACAS, Venezuela — The last of Venezuela’s glaciers has disappeared, scientists say, despite an unusual government effort to save it.
The demise of La Corona, downgraded to an ice field after shrinking from more than 1,100 acres to less than five, makes this South American nation the only one in the Andes range without a glacier — but it’s unlikely to be the last. Scientists, who long predicted the end of La Corona, say warming temperatures will render the entire Northern Andes, which snakes through Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, glacier-free by 2050.
“Our tropical glaciers are disappearing quickly since the Seventies,” said Alejandra Melfo, an astrophysicist at the University of the Andes in Mérida. “Now people are feeling the absence.”
As recently as 40 years ago, Venezuela boasted at least three glaciers, slow-moving masses of ice seen by scientists as sentinels of climate change. Although the country lies in the tropics, its southernmost point less than 50 miles from the equator, it contains the northeastern end of the Andes, with 11 peaks rising past 15,000 feet above sea level.
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CARACAS, Venezuela — The last of Venezuela’s glaciers has disappeared, scientists say, despite an unusual government effort to save it.
The demise of La Corona, downgraded to an ice field after shrinking from more than 1,100 acres to less than five, makes this South American nation the only one in the Andes range without a glacier — but it’s unlikely to be the last. Scientists, who long predicted the end of La Corona, say warming temperatures will render the entire Northern Andes, which snakes through Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, glacier-free by 2050.
“Our tropical glaciers are disappearing quickly since the Seventies,” said Alejandra Melfo, an astrophysicist at the University of the Andes in Mérida. “Now people are feeling the absence.”
As recently as 40 years ago, Venezuela boasted at least three glaciers, slow-moving masses of ice seen by scientists as sentinels of climate change. Although the country lies in the tropics, its southernmost point less than 50 miles from the equator, it contains the northeastern end of the Andes, with 11 peaks rising past 15,000 feet above sea level.
Read more here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/15/venezuela-corona-glacier-humboldt/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/15/venezuela-corona-glacier-humboldt/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)