One of the more dramatic effects of global warming is shrinking
glaciers around the globe. 10 to 20 percent of glacier ice in
the European Alps, for example, has been lost in less than two
decades, and half the volume of the mountain range’s glacier ice
has melted away since 1850. Thinning and melting rates in
Alaskan glaciers more than doubled over the last decade, African
glaciers have declined by 60 to 70 percent since the 1900s, and
most Pacific glaciers are also receding. Summer ice coverage in
the Arctic could disappear entirely within a decade, and Glacier
National Park may not have any glaciers by 2030. This isn’t just
destructive to wildlife and ecosystems. Given their locations,
glaciers can serve as crucial supplies of fresh water for
various human populations — and as they shrink year after year,
those supplies tighten. The latest example comes from a new
report by The Cryosphere, which documents the shrinkage of
glaciers in the Andes mountain range of South America. The
glaciers have shrunk by at