Venezuela just became the first country to lose its glaciers. Just over 100 years ago, the country boasted an area of around 1000 square kilometers of ice cover and has now reached this grim milestone in the fight against climate change.
For those in a hurry:
- Venezuela already had a large area of ice cover around 100 years ago;
- However, in just over 60 years the country has lost its ice cover by around 98%;
- Since 2011, what remained was a last glacier, but now it has been downgraded to just an ice field.
In 1910, Venezuela had 6 glaciers, five of which disappeared in 2011, leaving behind only the La Corona glacier, located in the Sierra Nevada National Park. During its peak, the ice cover covered an area of 4.5 square kilometers, but now, it has shrunk so much that it has been reclassified as an ice field.
La Corona currently occupies an area of 0.02 square kilometers, representing 0.4% of its original size. To be considered a glacier, the ice cover must extend over at least 0.1 square kilometers.
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Loss of glaciers in Venezuela
Research carried out over the last five years revealed that between 1953 and 2019 Venezuela had lost around 98% of its ice cover, with the loss accelerating after 1998. As of 2016, melting has been around 17% per year. year.
La Corona, in 1998, was just 0.6 square kilometers and shrank so much after that that it was almost losing its status as a glacier in 2015. Although this didn’t happen then, it has happened now. In response to The Guardianresearcher Luis Daniel Llambi, from the University of the Andes (ULA), reported that he was present on the last expedition to the glacier and that it had lost half of the area since the last visit, in 2019.
Our last expedition to the area was in December 2023 and we observed that the glacier had lost around 0.02 km² since our previous visit in 2019, [de 0,04 km²] to less than half now.
Luis Daniel Llambi
As a measure to try to save what little remains of the country’s glaciers, the Venezuelan government took emergency measures in December 2023. To protect the Humboldt glacier, a geotextile blanket was used in the hope of isolating the ice. The measure did not solve the problem and ended up receiving criticism regarding the use of material that could contaminate the region with microplastics as it decomposes over time.
It is quite tragic that Venezuela has lost its last glacier, but it is still possible to do something for the remaining glaciers around the world.
