An American in Lima

A new book (March 2008) co-edited by a UC Davis professor of environmental science and policy looks at the world’s glaciers from all sides, scientific, social and economic.

“Darkening Peaks: Glacier Retreat, Science and Society” (Univ. Cal. Press) brings together researchers from five continents to discuss how scientists study glaciers, how climate change is altering glaciers’ size and distribution, and what effects these changes are having on human life.

The book’s co-editor, Ben Orlove, is a specialist in the human dimensions of climate variability, and his work is of particular interest to anyone who cares about the Andes because he’s spent decades studying the region. He also is the author of Lines in the Water: Nature and Culture at Lake Titicaca.

Orlove has investigated how Andean people predict drought cycles using what he calls “indigenous knowledge.” He’s also very interested in El Nino patterns and how local populations understand climate change.

Check out Orlove’s short blog, Darkening Peaks, for his urgent and moving essay, “Peruvian Herders Feeling the Heat.”

In that essay he traces his April 2008 journey to the Peruvian Andes to see how local communities are responding to the tragic loss of their glaciers.

Among the information Orlove uncovers:

* Meltwater levels from glaciers in Phinaya have fallen to half of what they were in the 1960s;

* Pastures in high altitudes are drying up, and once-flowing glacial streams are turning to stagnant, disease-breeding pools;

* Locals say that on August 1, the day when the apus speak to one another, the mountain lords no longer talk — “they weep.”

I’d love to get my hands on a copy of Darkening Peaks, which, or course, isn’t available in Peru. I encourage anyone who’s read the book to leave comments on this blog.

BTW: Jared Diamond, the guy who wrote the remarkable book Guns, Germs and Steel, loves Darkening Peaks, calling it a “rich, broadly ranging” and “exciting” volume.

Links: Ben Orlove’s blog Darkening Peaks

Publisher’s online ordering page  (the book is on sale now for $26.95 hardcover, down from the original price of $45.00)

Amazon also sells Darkening Peaks.

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4. Photo of the Day: Callejón de Huaylas, Peru El Fotografo took this shot during the drive to Huaraz...
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