Climate change wreaking havoc with Colombia's glaciers

Climate change has helped melt nearly a fifth of Colombia's mountaintop glacier cover in just seven years, the government said Thursday.

The surface area of its six glaciers has shrunk from 45 square kilometers in 2010 to 37 square kilometers in 2017, for a decline of 18 percent, the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies said.

It blamed the glacier loss on "extreme events associated with natural phenomena and climate change."

If things go on like this the snow and ice covering atop Santa Isabel, a volcano in the Cordillera Central mountains, could vanish over the next 10 years, said Omar Franco, the head of the institute.

In the last two years alone, Colombia has lost six percent of its glacier mass, the institute said.

Environment Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said Colombia has much to lose in global warming because in the whole world it is ranked second only to Brazil in terms of biodiversity.

"We call on countries that are big emitters of greenhouse gases to live up to their commitments," Murillo said.

Colombia is a relatively low-level emitter, he added, "but even so, it has impacts on the country."

Huge iceberg off Greenland sparks flooding fears
Stockholm (AFP) July 13, 2018 - A massive iceberg drifting off Greenland has triggered fears of flooding if it breaks up, leading the authorities to evacuate a high-risk zone.

The authorities have urged residents of the Innaarsuit island settlement with houses on a promontory to move away from the shore over fears that the 100-metre (over 300 feet) high iceberg, which was spotted on Thursday, could swamp the area.

"We fear the iceberg could calve and send a flood towards the village," Lina Davidsen, a security chief at the Greenland police, told Danish news agency Ritzau on Friday.

The settlement in northwestern Greenland has 169 inhabitants, but only those living closest to the iceberg have been evacuated, Ritzau reported.

"The iceberg is still near the village and the police are now discussing what do to next," Kunuk Frediksen, a police chief in the Danish autonomous territory, told AFP.

Susanne K. Eliassen, a member of the village council, told the local newspaper Sermitsiaq that it was not unusual for large icebergs to be seen close to Innaarsuit.

"But this iceberg is the biggest we have seen... and there are cracks and holes that make us fear it can calve anytime," she said, adding that the village's power station and fuel tanks are close to the shore.

"Nobody is staying unnecessarily close to the beach and all children have been told to stay in areas that are high up," Eliassen added.

The incident comes weeks after scientists at New York University shot and released a video of a massive iceberg breaking free from a glacier in eastern Greenland in June.

An expert warned that extreme iceberg events will become more frequent.

"Iceberg production in Greenland has been increasing in the past 100 years as climate change has become stronger," William Colgan, senior researcher at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, told AFP.

He said the rising number of icebergs are in turn "increasing the tsunami hazards" which occur when they break away from a glacier and trigger a tidal wave.

Last year, four people died and 11 were injured after an earthquake sparked a tsunami off another island settlement called Nuugaatsiaq, sending several houses crashing into the sea.

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OMG, the water's warm! NASA study solves glacier puzzle
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 25, 2018
A new NASA study explains why the Tracy and Heilprin glaciers, which flow side by side into Inglefield Gulf in northwest Greenland, are melting at radically different rates. Using ocean data from NASA's Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) campaign, the study documents a plume of warm water flowing up Tracy's underwater face, and a much colder plume in front of Heilprin. Scientists have assumed plumes like these exist for glaciers all around Greenland, but this is the first time their effects have been ... read more