Star Metro - Global warming causes Colombian glacier to disappear

One of the glaciers in a chain of snow-capped mountains in the Colombian Andes has vanished due to high temperatures driven by climate change.

Satellite images show how the ice sheet covering the mountain gradually shrank from 2015 until it disappeared completely in March 2026.

Situated in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy range, in the northeast of Colombia, the Cerros de la Plaza glacier was officially declared disappeared last week by the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM).

Its surface area shrank from five square kilometers (1.93 square miles) in the 19th century to zero today, according to the agency.

"Climate change is a reality that is already transforming our territories. And what is at stake is not only the landscape, but the very balance of these ecosystems," IDEAM said in a statement.

The Colombian Andes, like the country's other ecosystems, are incredibly biodiverse, home to condors and mammals such as the spectacled bear.

The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, with peaks over 5,000 meters above sea level, is one of the last six remaining glacial systems in the country, where the area covered by ice has shrunk by 90 percent since the 19th century, according to the environment ministry.

Glaciers feed the Andes' freshwater sources, sustain mountain ecosystems and play a crucial role in crop irrigation, fishing, and other human activities.

The last 11 years have been the hottest 11 on record, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service and Berkeley Earth, a California-based non-profit research organization.

A study published in Science magazine in January 2023 predicted that half the planet's glaciers will have melted by 2100 even if the world meets its goal under the Paris Agreement of limiting warming to 1.5C.

D.Fraser--SMC