Within the shadow of towering, snow-capped Mt. Ausangate in the Peruvian Andes resides a pantheon of gods, spirits, and demons, according to local Quechua folklore.
Apus are gods of the hills and mountains. Apu Ausangate, the god of the 20,906-foot peak, is the most powerful god in the region and the source of Elemento, the glacier water that inundates the land half the year, and then dries up in the other half, letting village animals lose weight and go thirsty.
But lately, as reported by the World Bank, Scientific American, and elsewhere, Elemento has dwindled to a trickle even in the so-called “wet season.” The glacier has been receding, and scientists report villagers expressing fears for their future, and struggling to eke out a living in an increasingly inhospitable environment.
As humanity begins to grasp the extent to which ice caps and glaciers are retreating as Earth’s atmosphere heats up, the human element — how people experience and cope with the consequences — is coming to the forefront of many research efforts.
Recently the American Alpine Club announced its sponsorship of a scientific expedition to Peru’s Cordillera Blanca, one of the most famous mountaineering destinations in the world. A team of high-elevation climber-scientists will sample glaciers for CO2 concentrations and heavy metal deposition.
Scientific research on global warming in the Andes has been going on for several years. With water supplies, agriculture, hydropower, and traditional communities all at risk, the results of the research couldn’t be more important.
Web Links
All, John, “Climber Scientists in Peru,” Climbing Blog, American Alpine Club website, May 2, 2012.
http://inclined.americanalpineclub.org/2012/05/climber-scientists-in-peru/
De Pastino, Blake, “Mountain Glaciers Melting Faster Than Ever, Expert Says,” National Geographic News, Feb. 16, 2007. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070216-glaciers-melting.html
Fraser, Barbara, “Climate Change Equals Culture Change in the Andes: Melting sacred glaciers and other fundamental changes confront the Andes’s Quechua-speaking farmers,” Scientific American, Oct. 5, 2009.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=andes-climate-change-glacieramaru-agriculture
Gow, Rosalind, and Condori, Bernabe, Kay Pacha, Center for Rural Andean Studies, Cuzco, Peru, 1976. Bilingual edition in Quechua and Spanish.
World Bank, “Retracting Glacier Impacts Economic Outlook in the Tropical Andes,” April 23, 2008. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/LACEXT/0,,print:Y~isCURL:Y~contentMDK:21739254~pagePK:146736~piPK:146830~theSitePK:258554,00.html
Photo, taken on October 20, 2009, courtesy of Bill Bouton via Flickr.