Vanishing glaciers offer clear evidence of climate change: scientists (Rob Woollard)

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Climate change is likely to melt one of Peru's biggest glaciers within five years and is threatening ice packs on some of the world's most famous mountain ranges

by Rob Woollard -- AFP

Feb. 16, 2007 -- Climate change is likely to melt one of Peru's biggest glaciers within five years and is threatening ice packs on some of the world's most famous mountain ranges, scientists have said.

Climate change has accelerated the retreat of glaciers at rates not seen for thousands of years, glaciologist Lonnie Thompson told reporters at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences' annual meeting.

Thompson, a world-acclaimed paleoclimatologist and professor of earth science at Ohio State University, revealed that the Qori Kalis glacier high in the Andes would soon disappear at current rates.

The glacier, part of the Quelccaya Ice Cap, the largest body of ice in the tropics, had vanished at a speed of 60 meters per year over the past 10 years. In the preceding decade it had retreated at a rate of six meters per year.

"If you look at what's happening, they're not just retreating, they're accelerating," Thompson said.