The Earth's natural defenses against climate change, are beginning to give up

Eduardo Tonni, principal investigator of the Committee for Scientific Research in the province of Buenos Aires (CIC) and head of paleontology at the University of La Plata, said "There is no denying that global warming exists, the debate is whether it was generated by human beings or if it is only natural. There are effects of the action of man, but it is much more likely to be a natural product."

The former director of the Biological Station of Doñana, belonging to the Higher Council for Scientific Research, and chairman of the Migros Foundation, Miguel Ferrer replied to this question: Is Climate change a problem of the future or a present reality ?

"In the field of science there is no disagreement that this is a present reality, because in my particular case the scientific evidence is overwhelming. Over the past one hundred and fifty years the changes have happened at an enormous speed and are significantly different to what had happened before. "

Researcher Lonnie Thompson, said at the annual meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Science that took place last year: "No matter what we do at the moment the glaciars are disappearing, and we will lose the tropical glaciers, glaciers of the Andes and Kilimanjaro in Africa. "

Marco Zapata, engineer/geologist and coordinator of the unit Glaciology and Water Resources of the National Institute of Natural Resources of Peru said, "The glaciers are very sensitive indicators of climate change. Glaciars in Peru are undergoing a process of reversal or deglaciación very fast. "

Maria Teresa Becerra, an adviser to the environmental area of the General Secretariat of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) said: "The warming affects not only the gases emisor, but all countries on the planet, it affects more Latin American countries because they are the most vulnerable. We are eminently agricultural countries and global warming affects, since it changes climates. "

During the 11 th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP11) in Montreal, Canada in 2005, the Argentine Government reported that, "The natural-touristic heritage is affected by the reduction of Patagonian glaciers areas. It's one of the many reasons why scientists and technicians are working on possible geographic and climatic scenarios in order to anticipate and mitigate the possible consequences of climate change. "

Impact on protected natural areas

In the 5th. World Parks Congress, held in Durban, South Africa in 2003, specialists from around the world warned that climate change is damaging protected natural areas and other valuable habitats around the world. These rapid changes are resulting in the loss of rare or endangered species. National Parks around the world, from the Canadian Arctic tundra to the Americas and South Africa, have identified climate change as responsible for the migration of species and habitats outside the borders of the parks.

The institutions responsible for managing natural areas could face in the future to the daunting task of having to change their protected areas to keep pace with moving habitats and ecosystems.

Dr. Claude Martin, Director General of WWF International, said: "Climate change has emerged as a major threat to protected areas and we must take urgent measures to reduce CO2 emissions if we are to avoid irreversible damage in the protected areas in the world. "

So what can be done? The mitigation strategies can reduce the vulnerability of ecosystems and adaptation strategies can enhance the ecological resilience to climate and landscape change. The mitigation strategies are actions that foresee, reduce or slowdown changes in climate and landscape. The adaptation strategies are actions which counteract the adverse consequences of changes in climate and landscape.

Jean Ortiz, head of Huascaran National Park in Peru, revealed "that global warming is seriously affecting the place, since plants are disappearing and animals are fleeing to higher areas."

The biologist Miguel Ferrer believes "Until now the conservation policy, which was based on the network of parks, national or natural, or in the Natura 2000 network, has been an accepted strategy and has had very positive results, but is clearly insufficient in a world where living things we intend to protect move at a speed greater than we think. However, they leave the reserves we have created, and we must put in place other mechanisms that will enable us to be much more agile in the territories in which living things are going to move. Figures in which public ownership is not necessary, but in which private owners can be incorporated into the need and the obligation to conserve biodiversity. "

Let us not forget that biodiversity is a major source of livelihood directly, since 40% of the global economy and 80% of the needs of the poorest emanate from biological resources.

Another example is threatened Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon and its environs, where 30 million species coexist in 982,000 hectares. Esteban Suarez, director of Conservaty Wildlife Society, Ecuador chapter, said that "It is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, in this exceptional biodiversity it is based the foundation for its conservation."

The strategy of adaptive management

The ability of managers to create and implement policies and better informed management decisions related to climate change and landscape can be improved through an increase in access to information and understanding of the causes and consequences of climate and landscape change by managers and, secondly, providing managers with the tools that will enable them to identify and compare strategies for mitigation and adaptation.

The mass of snow in the mountains is disappearing

Dr. Matilda Rusticucci, a researcher at the Department of Atmospheric Sciences of the Oceans and the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), agrees with Dr. Mario Nunez, with respect to "the differences between temperatures maximum and minimum have decreased, and this makes winters more pleasant. "

The Argentinian Institute of Snow, Glaciers and Environmental Sciences of Mendoza disclosed that "over the past 20 years the glaciers along the Patagonia have declined in surface between 10% and 20%."

More than 40 Patagonian glaciers are receding. One is the glacier Frias,in the Tronador mountain, in the Nahuel Huapi National Park. From 1660 to 1850, approximately, fell at a speed of 2.5 meters per year. But since global warming began, the speed of decline increased significantly: fell 7 meters per year between 1850 and 1900, 10 meters per year between 1910 and 1940, and 36 meters, between 1976 and 1986, and unfortunately the process.

The Institute of Development Research (IRD by its French acronym) that studies the effects of global warming on tropical glaciers, has formulated a devastating scientific prediction "In the next 20 years, the majority of Peruvians snowed mountains will only be remembrance post cards. "

Scientists Hernan Chamber and Eugenio Yermolín, from the Argentine Antarctica Institute (IAA) said "In the late 80, the ice fields of southern Argentina and Chile--had reduced its surface in approximately 500 square kilometres."

Peru has about 70 percent of glaciers in South America ridges, compared to 20 percent in Bolivia, 4 percent in Ecuador, 4 percent in Colombia and less than 1 percent in Venezuela. Over the past 30 years, the surface of the glaciers of Peru --nearly 1,750 square kilometers-- has regressed in a 21.8 percent due to melting of glaciers because of global warming and environmental pollution. This percentage, according to experts, amounts to approximately 446 square kilometres of snow. Between 1948 and 1976 snow declined 9 meters on average in the Cordillera Blanca. But since 1977 to date the decline was 19 to 20 m, said Marco Zapata, head of Glaciology Unit of the National Institute of Natural Resources -- Inrena-Peru.

In 1989 it was developed a national inventory of glaciers that found that in the 18 mountain ranges of Peru there were 3044 glaciers, covering an area of 2041 km2. Ten years later studies by the National Environmental Council found that the mass of glaciers had reduced its surface by 23%.

The Minister of Environment of Chile, Dr. Ana Lya Uriarte highlighted that "One major consequence of climate change is reducing the masses of ice virtually around the globe, pinpointing the changes in Greenland, the Canadian Arctic, the Andes South America and Antarctica. Our country is no stranger to this problem, as our glaciers are receding rapidly, with still little known consequences for our society. "

Maria Teresa Becerra, an expert on issues of ecology and biodiversity says "Water in the cities of Latin America depends on the glaciers that are melting."

The President of Ecuador Dr. Rafael Correa Delgado said "Climate change affects Ecuador and other Andean countries directly in the form of melting glaciers and loss of water reserves. Nobody is compensating Ecuador for this damage." "The value of biodiversity has tended to rise in accordance with the pace of its destruction."

According to scientists at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Mexico, global warming was precisely the main cause for the disappearance of the remaining glaciers in the Popocatepetl volcano in 2000 and in 15 or 20 years they predict that they will lose all the glaciers in the country.

The doctor Chehbouni, research director of the French Institute for Scientific Research in Mexico states that "Climate change is a global phenomenon, but the consequences are regional." "And the sad reality in Latin America is that people living near the glacier has nothing to do with increasing emissions of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere"

The director of the Institute of Geological Research and Environment of Bolivia, Jaime Argollos, explained "As a geologist I know that thousands of years ago glaciers receded still more than what is happening now, then it is essential to know the current impact on high mountains, since it is happening again. " Most affected areas are the glaciers of Sajama volcano, Chacaltaya and Zongo and the melting of which have declined since the nineties and the melting of the basin Tuni Condoriri at a speed 10 times faster than in past decades and this affects water resources in La Paz and El Alto.

The Alps have also lost 50% of its glaciers, two thirds of the glaciers in Glacier National Park (USA) have disappeared and the Himalayas will lose 20% of its glacier mass in 30 years.

Think and act

The report "GEO ice and snow" developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico (INE), which released the impact of melting, specifies "It is extremely important to keep the ice and snow because that is where it speaks with more evidence the potential impact of climate change in biodiversity, water and even culture. This topic besides being a serious problem at the poles is also an extremely serious problem in our region ".

Watt-Cloutier said "Climate change is destroying our right to life, health and livelihoods. States that do not recognize these impacts and do not take action violate our human rights "

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said "I see with concern that the effects of climate change are increasingly noticeable and could be felt even more in the future as extreme weather events are intensifying."

The experts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-IPCC - warned in his report that the effects of global warming, ranging from shortages of food and water to the lifting sea levels, negatively affect the environment for human life.

The world is already concerned about climate change. And governments?

As a country, we must know what is going to happen and we must be prepared. Let's give the example, children do what they see doing rather than what they are told to do.