Venezuela’s last glacier collapses due to global warming

Venezuela is the first country in modern history to lose all its glaciers, with the vanishing of its Humboldt glacier. By 2011, five of Venezuela’s six glaciers, located in the Andes Mountains, vanished. Humboldt melted faster than expected, and has shrunk from 450 hectares to less than two hectares, leading to its downgrade from a glacier to an ice field. The Venezuelan government has put in a thermal blanket in an attempt to protect the glacier from further melting.

Glaciers are melting due to warmer temperatures caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs). The melting of the Humboldt glacier was accelerated by El Niño (an abnormal warming of surface waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean leading to warmer temperatures). Other glaciers across the world are shrinking fast, with two-thirds predicted to vanish by 2100 at current climate change trends.

India’s glaciers, too, are melting at unprecedented rates across the Hindu Kush Himalayan mountain ranges, and could lose up to 80% of their volume this century if GHG emissions are not drastically reduced.

Glaciers are a crucial source of freshwater for local communities, plants and animals. The cold water that runs off glaciers keeps downstream water temperatures cooler, which is crucial for many aquatic species to survive.