From the Miami Herald:
CHACALTAYA, Bolivia — — If
anyone needs a reminder of the on-the-ground impacts of global climate
change, come to the Andes mountains in Bolivia. At 17,388 feet above
sea level, Chacaltaya, an 18,000 year-old glacier that delighted
thousands of visitors for decades, is gone, completely melted away as
of some sad, undetermined moment early this year.
''Chacaltaya
has disappeared. It no longer exists,'' said Dr. Edson Ramirez, head of
an international team of scientists that has studied the glacier since
1991.
Chacaltaya (the name in Aymara means ''cold road'') began
melting in the mid-1980s. Ramirez, the assistant director of the
Institute of Hydraulics and Hydrology at the Universidad Mayor de San
Andres in nearby La Paz, documented its disappearance in March.
Here's a pic from Carsten Drossel, who adds that "Chacaltaya used to be the world's highest ski resort, but the glacier
almost completely vanished due to global warming so skiing is no longer
possible."
Cheers!
Kit Stolz 