Earth Equity News

40% of Ecuador's Glaciers are Gone. By James Painter, BBC News, April 24, 2010. "A study to be published this year by Ecuadorean glaciologist Bolivar Caceres suggests that the country's glaciers lost more than 40% of their surface area between 1956 and 2006… At more than 5,000m (16,400ft) high, tropical glaciers are particularly sensitive to a changing climate. During El Nino, which tends to bring hotter temperatures, the glaciers melt. On the other hand, during La Nina, which is associated with colder weather and more precipitation, some of the glaciers can advance or stabilize. 'The last few months have been particularly unusual,' says Bernard Francou, a glaciologist from the French Development Research Institute (IRD), who has been studying Ecuador's glaciers since 1994. 'We have had the lowest precipitation for more than 40 years'... The gradual disappearance of the glaciers is not just a matter of aesthetic regret. Several Andean cities are thought to be dependent on the melting glaciers for part of their drinking supply, particularly in the dry season. However, recent studies suggest that at least in the case of Quito, the Ecuadorean capital, which has a population of 2.4 million people, the contribution of glacial melt from Antisana and Cotopaxi to its water supply may not be as high as previously thought. Marcos Villacis from Quito's National Polytechnic School leads a team of researchers who have been studying the water supplies to the capital... Precipitation provides by far the most amount of water... However, Mr Villacis is at pains to stress that the melt water from the glaciers plays a crucial role in supplying water to the high Andean grasslands known as paramos, which act like an enormous sponge in absorbing and releasing water."