Publication
Vanishing glaciers
According to Amerindian legend, the highest peaks of the Merida mountain range in Venezuela owe their snow-covered summits to the beating wings of five white eagles. But over the last few decades, the birds of prey seem to have deserted the cordillera, which is now covered in stony soil. In 2023, the country lost its last glacier, La Corona.
The Andes are not the only mountains the white eagles no longer visit. Glaciers are retreating everywhere, from the Alps to Mount Everest to Kilimanjaro. More broadly, it is the entire cryosphere ¨C all the masses of ice, snow and frozen ground ¨C that is being reduced by climate change. Over the last two years, this process has accelerated at an unprecedented rate.
The International Year of Glaciers¡¯ Preservation declared by the United Nations and coordinated by UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) provides an opportunity to analyze the consequences of this major phenomenon, which can only be curbed effectively by a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Raising public awareness of the effects of global warming is another key focus of the International Year. But we have far to go in this domain. According to several recent UNESCO studies, less than 40 per cent of teachers feel capable of explaining the impact of climate change to students, and 70 per cent of young people admit they have a poor grasp of the subject.
Yet there is an urgent need to act. The melting of glaciers has far-reaching consequences: disruption of the water cycle, rising sea levels that threaten coastal areas, and increased risk of flooding are just some of the already visible manifestations. It is also a source of disruption for many indigenous communities living at high altitude, for whom glaciers have a cultural dimension, as shown by recent developments in the pilgrimage to the shrine of the Lord of Qoyllurit'i, which was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011.
The changes that are taking place on mountain peaks today, in areas often remote and difficult to access, may seem distant and local. Quite the opposite is true. What is happening today in the mountains, the veritable sentinels of climate change, will affect the quality of life in the valleys, coastal areas, and cities. In a word, our future is at stake.
Agn¨¨s Bardon
Editor-in-Chief
