Andes – Desdemona Despair

Map of surface temperature in South America on 1 August 2023. The winter of 2023 in South America saw temperatures as high as 38.9°C in the Chilean Andes, much higher than what Southern Europe had in mid-summer at the same elevation. Graphic: MetDesk / WXCharts.com

August 5, 2023

“Pushing temperatures into the unknown”: South America swelters under “fierce” heatwave in the middle of winter 2023 – “This temperature is the highest recorded in this period in all of Chile”

By Sophie Tanno 4 August 2023 (CNN) – Parts of South America are sweltering under abnormally hot temperatures – despite being in the depths of winter – as the combination of human-caused climate change and the arrival of El Niño feed into extreme winter heat. Southern Cone countries including Chile and Argentina have experienced summer-like […]

Regional glacier mass change and contributions to sea level rise from 2015 to 2100. Discs show global and regional projections of glacier mass remaining by 2100 relative to 2015 for global mean temperature change scenarios. Discs are scaled based on each region’s contribution to global mean sea level rise from 2015 to 2100 for the +2°C scenario by 2100 relative to preindustrial levels, and nested rings are colored by temperature change scenarios showing normalized mass remaining in 2100. Regional sea level rise contributions >1 mm SLE for the +2°C scenario are printed in the center of each disc. The horizontal bars below each disc show time series of area-averaged annual mass balance from 2015 to 2100 for +1.5°C (top bar) and +3°C (bottom bar) scenarios. The colorbar is saturated at −2.5 m w.e., but minimum annual values reach −4.2 m w.e. in Scandinavia. Graphic: Rounce, et al., 2022 / Science

January 7, 2023

Half of glaciers will be gone by 2100 even under Paris 1.5C accord, study finds

By Phoebe Weston 5 January 2023 (The Guardian) – Half the planet’s glaciers will have melted by 2100 even if humanity sticks to goals set out in the Paris climate agreement, according to research that finds the scale and impacts of glacial loss are greater than previously thought. At least half of that loss will happen […]

An indigenous woman raises her hands in prayer asking for rain in the Lloko Lloko community, in Tihuanacu, Bolivia, on 23 November 2022. Photo: Claudia Morales / REUTERS

December 10, 2022

In South America’s Andes, farmers pray for rain to end drought – “The heat is very strong and burning, we can no longer bear it”

By Monica Machicao 25 November 2022 TIHUANACU, Bolivia (Reuters) – High in the mountains of the Bolivian Andes, farmer Alberto Quispe has one thing on his mind: rain. In the rural area of Tihuanacu, around 100 kilometers (62 miles) south-west of highland city La Paz, locals say there has been little rain this season during […]

Laurence Cowie on his property looking at the spreading bushfire in Canberra on 1 February 2020. Photo: Brook Mitchell / Getty Images

February 6, 2020

Plants safely store toxic mercury. Bushfires and climate change bring it back into our environment.

By Larissa Schneider, Colin Cooke, Nathan D Stansell, and Simon Haberle 29 January 2020 (The Conversation) – Climate change and bushfire may exacerbate recent mercury pollution and increase exposure to the poisonous neurotoxin, according to our study published in the Journal of Paleolimnology. Mercury stored in plants is released during bushfires, suggesting Australia is particularly at […]

Water towers of the World: the most important mountainous and glacial regions in the Americas, which serve as the “water towers” for billions living downstream. Data: Walter Immerzeel, Utrecht University. Graphic: Brian T. Jacobs / National Geographic

December 28, 2019

World’s supply of fresh water in trouble as mountain ice vanishes – 1.9 billion people at risk from mountain water shortages – “The most important water towers are also among the most vulnerable”

By Alejandra Borunda 9 December 2019 (National Geographic) – High in the Himalaya, near the base of the Gangotri glacier, water burbles along a narrow river. Pebbles, carried in the small river’s flow, pling as they carom downstream. This water will flow thousands of miles, eventually feeding people, farms, and the natural world on the vast, […]

Satellite view of Humboldt glacier Venezuela in 1985, 2008, and 2019. Photo: Maxar Technologies

September 25, 2019

Hardy scientists trek to Venezuela’s last glacier amid chaos – “More than 50 million people in South America rely on water provision from the Andes”

By Christina Larson and Federica Narancio 24 September 2019 MERIDA, Venezuela (AP) – Blackouts shut off the refrigerators where the scientists keep their lab samples. Gas shortages mean they sometimes have to work from home. They even reuse sheets of paper to record field data because fresh supplies are so scarce. As their country falls […]