BLOG
May 25th, 2021
Via Emerging World and El Pais, commentary on plight of Mexico’s remaining glaciers:
“Only five glaciers remain in the country, spread over two mountains: Iztaccíhuatl and Pico de Orizaba. In total they occupy less than a square kilometer of ice. Experts say that in 2050 there will be none left. Global warming is to blame for the accelerated disappearance of this water source.”
‘…The irremediable extinction of the Mexican glaciers, unique in their latitude of 20º north, means losing an unambiguous sensor on climate change, but above all it implies losing a source of water. In an increasingly populated and drier country – the average temperature in Mexico has increased two degrees in the last 34 years – glaciers are an additional contribution in the dry season to communities living near the mountains. They cooperate with around 5% of water to the regional hydrological system, by runoff or by feeding the aquifers. “It is very little, but even so it will cease to exist,” insists Delgado.
All the signs – the retreating glaciers, the melting poles , the emptying dams – point in the same direction: “There will no longer be so much water availability. Our society will be under a water stress scheme. It is a problem that is already here, but it has not yet manifested itself in all its magnitude. The real challenge now is how we are going to adapt ”. Beatriz Guillen reports (In Spanish)