Climate Change Is Speeding Up Ice Melt in Peru, With Devastating Consequences
Climate Change Is Speeding Up Ice Melt in Peru, With Devastating Consequences
Warmer temperatures damage the environment, destabilize Lima’s water supply – and cost billions to mitigate.
MAPARAJU, Peru – Standing on a rocky outcrop some 16,000 feet above sea level, mountain ecologist John All stares intensely at the glacier that leads up to the summit of Mount Maparaju, another 1,500 feet above us.
It should form a gentle convex arc from where we stand all the way up to the peak, perhaps half a mile away. For an experienced mountaineer like him, heading to the summit ought to be nothing more than a 90-minute stroll.
Instead, the glacier surface, ravaged by climate change, has sunk so dramatically that going straight up now would entail a technical climb up...
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