While Peru’s long strip of coastal desert is not as well-known by foreigners as are Peru’s mountain highlands and lush tropical rainforests, it has enticed the interest of climate change researchers who are investigating why this part of Peru is strangely getting colder, while the rest of the world is heating up.
Climate change effects such as this one aren’t unique to the coastal area of Peru– in fact they are now becoming the norm across the country’s ecologically diverse regions.
To better understand why Peru’s coast has become colder, an international team of researchers commenced work this week on a research project in the Pacific Ocean off of Peru’s coast. They are using a variety of equipment, such as a satellite-controlled submarine, to collect data from the atmosphere and ocean. During the research, they also hope to learn more about the infamous and periodic El Nino and La Nina climate occurrences.
The important Humboldt ocean current runs along the coast of Peru, and according to Reuters is “considered the world’s most productive marine ecosystem, in part because deep cold waters rich in nutrients interact with the sun’s energy to create life.” For this reason, it is estimated that approximately 20% of the world’s fish hatch here– making Peru’s ocean areas not only crucial to fish populations, but also to those people who fish.
My Personal Connection to Climate Change in Peru
But getting back to the issue of Peru’s coast being colder, how does that affect people? Much of Peru’s population lives on the coast, including those people in the capital city of Lima. The sprawling metropolis contains about 9 million people– approximately a third of the Peru’s total population– and they don’t like being cold. Believe me, you can hear the words “Que frio!” (How cold!) yelped on almost any Lima street on any day in winter.
I myself moved to Peru with my family at the end of January this year. My wife is from Peru, and many of her family members live in Lima. I was surprised when she told me that we would be bringing thermal underwear to some of them. She told me that this type of clothing could not be easily found as of yet in Peru. A country in the tropics can’t be that cold I thought. July of this year proved me wrong.
In addition to personally experiencing Lima’s new cold trend, I’ve been lucky to personally and indirectly experience and learn from climate change’s effects in Peru’s other major regions this year. We have lived in each of them for several months while my wife collects data for her research in several Peruvian national parks. Perhaps most interesting and intriguing is what is happening in Peru’s highlands.
As Peru’s Glaciers Melt, Perhaps Tragedy Will Be Softened By Scientific Discoveries That Lead to Disease-Curing Drugs
You probably have heard about how glaciers are melting around the globe because of global warming. The case is depressing in Peru. Scientists have recently estimated that Peru’s glaciers will be gone 25 years from now and that 70% of the country’s population will be left without clean water. As a result Peru’s government is planning to desalinate water from the Pacific Ocean to help combat the massive loss of water.
Earlier this year my family lived in the Highlands city of Huaraz, famous for its location in a valley surrounded by snow-capped mountain peaks. It was certainly disconcerting to see posters hanging in restaurants and stores that showed a noticeably greater amount of snow and ice on the same mountains that quite visibly have less today. In July, the popular Pastoruri Glacier that was easily accessible to tourists was deemed to no longer be a glacier (now its a snowcap).
Climate changes haven’t just been limited in the Peruvian highlands to the retreat of glaciers. An article in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle told the story of how potato farmers in the Huaraz area are now being challenged by a variety of factors that have made it hard to maintain their prior farming practices. Less consistent rain and an increase of hail, in addition to rising temperatures have shortened growing seasons and increased crops’ susceptibility to new parasites like fungi. While news like this is just as worrisome as the gloomy forecast for Peru’s glaciers, one type of research might provide something of a silver lining to the less desirable effects of climate change in Peru’s highlands.
Scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder have been studying the invasion of small organisms known as “extremophiles” that have colonized barren soil areas uncovered during the retreat of Peru’s Puca Glacier. The glacier is receding about 60 feet each year. Several weeks ago they published an article about their five year study. It has some intriguing findings.
At 16,400 feet, the heights of the Andes would not seem like a place where new life would so quickly take root. What’s impressive though is that the team of researchers found that three cyanobacteria species had colonized the inhospitable area uncovered by Puca during the first year of their research. Three years later there were 20 species. It is possible that there are some additional species now that have never before been documented. The researchers who studied Puca have recently received a National Science Foundantion grant to document new extremophile species in cold climates. If not already apparent, extremophiles are existentially organisms that are able to survive in harsh, extreme conditions (e.g. very hot or cold places on the earth, places without light, and so on).
Extremophiles have unique properties that can sometimes make them important sources for creating new pharmaceuticals. For instance, many extremophiles live in places like caves. Some years ago several new species of bacteria were found within pools of water in an extremely pristine cave within the U.S.’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Enzymes produced by these bacteria were found to potentially be able to kill cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact. Perhaps new bacteria found growing in spaces vacated by glaciers in the Peruvian Andes will also help make new drugs that can cure diseases. I hope so.
What is interesting about Peru is that you have an almost direct cause and effect scenario in regard to climate change and global warming that you can visibly understand when traveling from the country’s highlands region to the rainforest region.
The Destruction of Peru’s Amazon Rainforest is One of Climate Change’s Primary Drivers
While Peru does not possess the same amount of the Amazon Rainforest as Brazil does, it still does have a large percentage of the Amazon Basin’s ecosystems. Just like in other parts of South America, as the rainforest is cut down and burned in Peru, one of the world’s more important carbon capture areas disappears. The effect of deforestation is not only is helping to melt Peru’s glaciers (as well as carbon emissions worldwide) and alter coastal weather temperatures, but also is making for some dramatic climate changes in the rainforest areas of Peru.
Now rains are more inconsistent, and old patterns are shifting to new ones that are poorly understood. Where my family is currently living in Peru’s central rainforest region, many people have anecdotally told us that now the rainy season seems to be starting earlier in the year (some people have also told us that they don’t think this is true– it’s the same as it has always been). We have witnessed the increase of daily rainfall in our short time in this region, and are now planning to leave earlier than initially planned because of our fear that roads will become inpassable.
Earlier this year, sudden and heavy rains triggered flashfloods in the north of Peru, destroying crops and causing concerns of malaria and dengue outbreaks. A recent article highlighted the shift in Peru toward more farmers growing coffee organically, rather than deforesting rainforest to grow more crops. Several farmers have noticed that now there is less rain falling in coffee-growing regions– an important factor, especially now that Peru is the world’s leading producer of organic coffee.
While I have not mentioned research relating to climate change occurring specifically in Peru’s rainforests, the Amazon region is well studied. For instance, scientists recently released a report that highlighted the threat posed to the Amazon from cleaner air (you read that correctly).
How Peru’s Government is Responding to Climate Change
Earlier this year Peru’s president Alan Garcia created a new Environment Ministry to help combat climate change. Last week the Environment Ministry made its biggest move yet, announcing the creation of a 3,000 person environment police force to help stop illegal logging in the Amazon. It remains to be seen whether or not this action will be effective, or perhaps will be hollow like Brazil’s announcement that they would end deforestation by 2015.
While its not looking good for how Peru’s ecosystems and people will be effected by climate change, it is at least encouraging to now that the diverse effects are being studied across the country. Hopefully with more research, our understanding of how to create solutions to the causes and problems created by climate change will become more clear.
Photo Credit: Bruno Girin on Flickr under a Creative Commons license
