Bolivia’s Chacaltaya Glacier, once known as the world’s highest ski run at 17,388 feet, has completely melted away, serving as a vivid example of the effects of climate change on the glaciers around the globe.
“Chacaltaya has disappeared. It no longer exists.” – Dr. Edson Ramirez, Institute of Hydraulics and Hydrology at the Universidad Mayor de San Andres
In 1999, Ramirez, the head of a team of researchers studying the glacier since 1991, believed that the glacier would continue to exist until 2015, but the rate of melting tripled in the last ten years, and the once popular tourist destination is now completely gone.
Only a handful of dedicated skiers and tourists now visit Chacaltaya, which does have a tiny area to ski on snowy days (a run of maybe 600 feet) just down from the location of the former glacier. Alfredo Martinez, a founder of the Club Andino de Bolivia, says ”Very few come to ski now.”
The Chacaltaya glacier is part of Bolivia’s Tuni Condoriri glaciated mountain system, which has lost a third of its ice since 1983. The best guess from researchers is that Tuni and Condoriri, the two largest glaciers in the system, will not last more than 20 to 30 years. Illimani, a 21,200 foot mountain looming over La Paz, is home to several glaciers, which may melt completely within 30 years, said Ramirez.
“It’s very probable that other glaciers are disappearing faster than we thought.” – Ramirez
Ramirez sees the disappearance of Chacaltaya as an example of the effects of greenhouse gas accumulation and an increase in average temperatures worldwide, but says that the controversies over the validity of global warming are irrelevant, because the effects are apparent in the Andean glaciers.
More on Bolivia and Climate Change:
- Days of Skiing in Switzerland Could be Numbered
- Will Bolivia Be Ruined, Improved, or Hated Because of Electric Cars?
- Fight Over Natural Gas Has Bolivia on Brink of Collapse
- Black Carbon Reductions Could Reverse Arctic Warming Within Weeks
- Antarctica’s Glaciers Suffer Strong Retraction
- Tibetan Glaciers Shrinking Faster Than Expected
Image: IPCC Working Group II Fourth Assessment Report 2007, Figure 1.1.
About Derek Markham
it is indeed true, thAT climate change is already extreme and felt around the globe..
Am not quite sure how this relates to the climate change agenda of Al Gore, but somehow he and his group are finding the Americans responsible for this. How crazy is that? I believe this is just a natural occurance that has little to do with us. Besides, you could fool me with the winter (2008-09) here in Northern Michigan. MORE than parkas were needed.
Global warming or cooling IS cyclic but generally those changes are over many eons and last I knew we have only been keeping track of our weather actively for about a century or so except civilizations that kept track in other ways or their remnants allow us to study what happened.
It is measurable that the Industrial Revolution caused changes in atmospheric chemistry, that volcanic activity has caused changes, catastrophic astronomical events have variously had an effect, forest fires, termites, cows, a/c and refrigeration gases, not to mention the gasoline and diesel engines running them, as well as many other events have also had major effects to change the atmosphere and the chemistry it is made of which it consists.
Don’t care how warm or cold it is if the ultra violet and other solar radiation being permitted to penetrate the atmospheric shield is changing my skin and the skin of everything with even more harmful modifications, i.e. skin lesions and other less than healthy skin cells.
When we no longer exist some day, we will only be some fossil evidence of another great organic mass that was absorbed by our mother planet.
I personally think that this global warming mumbo-jumbo is getting out of hand. I personally believe that mother earth isn’t too worried about her inhabitants. This planet has been here for how many billion years and weve been here for what 6000 maybe. Yeah I think we are the least of this planets worries. We don’t kill the planet the planet kills us then it repairs itself and lives on long, long, long after we are gone.
It’s kind of worrying if glaciers start melting because a lot of people get their water from the runoff. If this continues too radically then there could be water shortages in many areas around the world. There’s nothing like a lack of vital resources to cause instability to the many regions of the globe that would be affected.
M. Bachmann, your god is an idiot, and so are you if you truly believe that kind of crap.
I,think all of you should run and hide.
Linus you fool! Have YOU read State of Fear? And if you did, do yourself a favor and read Michael Crichton’s little blurb at the end.
The book is fiction – it’s dangerous to use it to blindly disregard global warming.
You guys really need to watch these videos on Alberta’s oilsands.
Anyone who thinks that this is not mankinds doing has never tried to breath in the big cities of the world and thus are talking threw their ass.
People who make random comments without knowing the facts are irritating and waste my time. Get some real knowledge so that you can quote facts; not rant on pointless/useless opinion.
Great read: “The Weathermakers” – Tim Flannery
Of course it does, thats the whole point.
Your love of climate change and global warming articles has changed my life deeply.
I’m sure that glacier has been melting since the early 1800′s, and it didn’t just magically start melting.
come on people, all the glaciers that have been melting have been doing so for over a CENTURY! Stop worrying about carbon dioxide, the gas that our planet breathes, and start worrying about deforestation, over fishing, and real pollution such as nitrites enterting our oceans from big agri.
I worked in a ski shop all through high school and it was funny how the snow melted every spring and we had nothing to do all summer…
Glaciers are made up from snow, get your facts straight.
People are so late in getting involved.
Does that mean there will be more water? I love water.
the lack of oxygen would make the skiing not fun.
Hi all.
My name is Kurt and I am a big fan of skiing, since i have been doing it for almost 15 years.
So, I am thinking about traveling to Las lenas next month. Could someone recommended a local travel agency, which can provide me with accomodation and transport? Many thanks
Hello Kurt,
My name is Jessica I am from California, regarding your comment,let me tell you that I was in Las Leñas one week ago, and was AMAZING!
I can recommend you contact with Las Lenas Ski.
They help me a lot, and the staff is really professional.
Good Luck!
A glacier melts, as they have been doing for 10,000+ years, and everyone predicts the End of the World!
But, Bolivia continues to COOL generally – with most records indicating significant cooling over the last 10 years.
So how can a melting glacier be caused by “GLOBAL” Warming in a country that’s cooling?
I guess we’ll have to ask Al Gore that one….
http://www.inesad.edu.bo/mmblog/mm_20080414.htm
I love checking up on all the unique types of 12/21/12 mayan prophecy, I believe one good realization that has come of all of this, even if nothing takes place is that it has opened our psyches to the possibility that we may not be here forever and that we need to cherish the lifespan we have.