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Global Warming Claims Another Peruvian Glacier
Awful news. Quilca Glacier (5,250 meters above sea level) in Puno has disappeared completely, reports Peru’s National Institute for Natural Resources (IRENA). The disappearance of Quilca is part of an ongoing recession of tropical glaciers throughout the Andes, where climate change (mainly rising air temperatures) is making it impossible for the ice to regenerate. Experts such as Marco Zapata, of IRENA, predict that no glaciers will be left in Peru by 2025. Please do the math. That’s 16 years away. Why should people care that tropical glaciers are melting in this Andean country? The reasons are both local and global. First, Peru derives 80% of its water for drinking, agriculture and hydropower…