Ecobreves – PERU: Andean Glaciers Melting

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LIMA, Aug 2 2004 (IPS) - The shrinking of the glaciers in the Peruvian Andes is a cause of concern for the head of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Klaus Topfer, who is supporting an initiative to measure the surface of the glaciers every five years. Topfer called on the president of the Andean Institute of Glaciology and Geo-environment, Benjamín Morales, to present a project to the United Nations for financing efforts to monitor and measure the glacier melt phenomenon.

In the past 27 years, Peru has lost 470 square km of glaciers, and 111 square km were in the Cordillera Blanca, an area in Peru's northern sierra that Topfer visited on Jul. 24, Morales told Tierramérica.

The reduction of the glacier mass is caused by pollution and by global climate change, and poses a serious threat for Peru, because the Andean snow and ice serves as the country's main water source, Morales said.