A ghastly milepost in the conflict against clime alteration has now been reached , as the disappearance of Venezuela ’s last glacier stand for the commonwealth has win the race to be the first to see all of its ice torso melt . As recently as 1910 , the South American nation boasted six glaciers spanning a total area of 1,000 square kilometers ( 386 square naut mi ) , yet these have been thin to bare smattering of ice that no longer meet the requirement to be assort as glacier .
Five of the country’sglaciershad already gone by 2011 , with just the Humboldt glacier – also love as La Corona – clinging on in the Sierra Nevada National Park . However , the frozen turning point has now shrunk so much that it has been reclassify as an ice athletic field .
" In Venezuela there are no more glaciers , " Professor Julio Cesar Centeno from the University of the Andes ( ULA)told AFPin March . " What we have is a piece of glass that is 0.4 percent of its original sizing . "
In its bloom , La Corona covered 4.5 square kilometers ( 1.7 square miles ) , yet it now stretches for less than 0.02 square kilometers ( 2 hectares ) . Generally , a piece of ice must extend for at least 0.1 solid kilometer ( 10 hectare ) to be considered a glacier .
inquiry behave over the past half - decade has designate that glacial coverage in Venezuela decline by98 percentbetween 1953 and 2019 . The pace ofice lossaccelerated speedily after 1998 , make a tiptop of around 17 percentage per twelvemonth from 2016 onwards .
La Corona itself covered some 0.6 square klick ( 0.2 straight Admiralty mile ) in 1998 , but had shrunk down to such an extent that it was already on the verge of lose its glacier status in 2015 . Commenting on the glacier ’s demise , ULA investigator Luis Daniel Llambitold the Guardianthat “ our last expedition to the arena was in December 2023 and we did honour that the glacier had lost some two hectare from the previous visit in 2019 , [ down from four hectares ] to less than two hectares now . ”
Also in December , the Venezuelan government arranged for the Humboldt glacier to be cover with a geotextile mantle in the hope of insulate and protecting it . Not only did the plan fail , but it has also drawn the ire of conservationists who say the ill - apprise strategy could lead to ecosystem pollution as the material breaks down into microplastics over time .
" These microplastics are much inconspicuous , they end up in the grease and from there they go to crop , lagoon , into the air , so people will end up eating and breathe that , " say Centeno .
All in all , it ’s a pretty tragical death for a land that hostedcross - area skiing eventsas recently as the 1950s .
