See effects of climate change at Pastoruri glacier
12 Nov 2013 5:33 AM IST
It was so bright with ice and snow that sunglasses were mandatory.
But in less than 20 years, including at least 10 of the hottest on record, Pastoruri has shrunk in half, and now spans just a third of a square mile (0.9 square km).
Melting ice has given way to slabs of black rock, two small lakes gathering the glacial runoff have swollen together, and officials have banned climbing on the unstable formation.
‘There isn’t much left of our great tourist attraction,’ said local guide Valerio Huerta, squinting at Pastoruri. ‘Tourists now always leave totally disappointed.’
The dwindling number of visitors to Pastoruri - 34,000 last year compared to an estimated 100,000 per year in the 1990s - has eroded tourism earnings that support thousands in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru’s most popular cluster of snowy peaks.
Now locals are making a bid to lure tourists back to Pastoruri before it is gone completely - likely in a decade.
Instead of marketing Pastoruri as the pristine Andean winter wonderland it once was - visible in outdated pictures that still hang in hotels and restaurants in nearby towns - the peak is being rebranded as a place to see climate change in action.
The ‘climate change route,’ to officially launch in March, is the latest offbeat answer to rising temperatures that have eaten up 30 to 50 percent of Andean glaciers in recent decades.
Peruvians have insulated ice with sawdust to stave off melting and painted exposed rock white to reflect sunlight.
Those experiments curb glacial retreat on a small scale, but cannot bring ice blocks like Pastoruri back from the brink, said Selwyn Valverde with the Huascaran National Park, home to Pastoruri and more than 700 other shrinking Peruvian glaciers.
‘It’s irreversible at this point,’ he said, adding that Pastoruri is no longer technically a glacier because it does not build up ice in the winter to release in the summer. ‘It’s just loss, loss, loss now. It doesn’t accumulate anymore.’
Peru is home to 70 percent of the world’s tropical glaciers, formations particularly sensitive to temperature hikes.
Supporters of the route say Pastoruri, an hour-long flight from Lima and then another hour’s drive from the regional capital Huaraz, is perfectly positioned to show the world the impacts of warming that will one day be widespread.
‘BORING’ TO WATCH GLACIER DISAPPEAR?
On the climate change route, visitors pass marshes and ponds red with rust as they walk over a hill that was once ice.
‘Smell the water,’ Valverde said, bringing a handful to his nose. ‘Do you smell the iron?’
Mountain rocks covered for years are shedding minerals as ice melts off them - rendering water undrinkable with high levels of heavy metals like cadmium and iron, Valverde said.
But in less than 20 years, including at least 10 of the hottest on record, Pastoruri has shrunk in half, and now spans just a third of a square mile (0.9 square km).
Melting ice has given way to slabs of black rock, two small lakes gathering the glacial runoff have swollen together, and officials have banned climbing on the unstable formation.
‘There isn’t much left of our great tourist attraction,’ said local guide Valerio Huerta, squinting at Pastoruri. ‘Tourists now always leave totally disappointed.’
The dwindling number of visitors to Pastoruri - 34,000 last year compared to an estimated 100,000 per year in the 1990s - has eroded tourism earnings that support thousands in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru’s most popular cluster of snowy peaks.
Now locals are making a bid to lure tourists back to Pastoruri before it is gone completely - likely in a decade.
Instead of marketing Pastoruri as the pristine Andean winter wonderland it once was - visible in outdated pictures that still hang in hotels and restaurants in nearby towns - the peak is being rebranded as a place to see climate change in action.
The ‘climate change route,’ to officially launch in March, is the latest offbeat answer to rising temperatures that have eaten up 30 to 50 percent of Andean glaciers in recent decades.
Peruvians have insulated ice with sawdust to stave off melting and painted exposed rock white to reflect sunlight.
Those experiments curb glacial retreat on a small scale, but cannot bring ice blocks like Pastoruri back from the brink, said Selwyn Valverde with the Huascaran National Park, home to Pastoruri and more than 700 other shrinking Peruvian glaciers.
‘It’s irreversible at this point,’ he said, adding that Pastoruri is no longer technically a glacier because it does not build up ice in the winter to release in the summer. ‘It’s just loss, loss, loss now. It doesn’t accumulate anymore.’
Peru is home to 70 percent of the world’s tropical glaciers, formations particularly sensitive to temperature hikes.
Supporters of the route say Pastoruri, an hour-long flight from Lima and then another hour’s drive from the regional capital Huaraz, is perfectly positioned to show the world the impacts of warming that will one day be widespread.
‘BORING’ TO WATCH GLACIER DISAPPEAR?
On the climate change route, visitors pass marshes and ponds red with rust as they walk over a hill that was once ice.
‘Smell the water,’ Valverde said, bringing a handful to his nose. ‘Do you smell the iron?’
Mountain rocks covered for years are shedding minerals as ice melts off them - rendering water undrinkable with high levels of heavy metals like cadmium and iron, Valverde said.
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