Why is it in the News?

Venezuela is thought to be the first nation in modern times to have completely lost all of its glaciers.

About Humboldt Glacier:

• Venezuela's Humboldt Glacier, also known as La Corona, held great significance as the country's last remaining glacier.
• Located in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida mountain range in the Andes, at an altitude of approximately 5,000 meters, the Humboldt Glacier was part of a group of six glaciers that once covered an area of 10 square kilometres.
  • However, due to the accelerated melting caused by climate change, five of these glaciers had vanished by 2011, leaving Humboldt as the sole remnant.
• Humboldt Glacier's deterioration continued at an alarming pace in subsequent years.
• Recent studies conducted by the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI), a scientific advocacy organization, revealed that the glacier had shrunk to an area of less than 2 hectares.
  • As a result, it was downgraded from a glacier to an ice field, marking Venezuela as the first country in modern history to lose all of its glaciers.
• The demise of Humboldt Glacier serves as a stark warning of the global consequences of climate change.
• It exemplifies the rapid loss of ice in tropical regions, which not only impacts local ecosystems and water resources but also contributes to rising sea levels and exacerbates the effects of climate change worldwide.

About the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI):

• International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI) was formed in 2009 following COP-15 in Copenhagen.
• It is a network of senior policy experts and researchers working with governments and organizations to create, shape and implement initiatives designed to preserve as much of the Earth’s cryosphere as possible.
• CCI's work focuses on three major areas of the cryosphere:
  • The Arctic
  • The Antarctic
  • High mountain regions
• By connecting cutting-edge science to a variety of policy-making forums and supporting integrated projects worldwide to protect the cryosphere, ICCI advances climate action.
• ICCI programs target the unique climate dynamics at work in the cryosphere, while at the same time lending increased urgency to global climate efforts aimed at CO2 and other greenhouse gases by communicating the unexpected rapidity and global implications of cryosphere warming.