5 ms·

The Last Glacier of Venezuela

62 points by fern12 9y ago

rhombocombus 9y ago
I have been fascinated with glaciers my entire life. I live in the Pacific Northwest, and it is fortunate that we still have them. It is a shame that my grandchildren might not get to experience their beauty and splendor.
nathancahill 9y ago
Shame. I biked up to one of the last glaciers in Colombia. Got to see them before they are gone.
silveira 9y ago
Slightly unrelated: when juxtaposing pictures in a before-after presentation, but the before picture before (left), and the after picture, after (right). In the original picture from Wikimedia used in this article (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pico_Bol%C3%ADvar_1950-2011.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pico_Bol%C3%ADvar_19...), it was already in left-to-right order, someone took the effort to invert it. Unless you are writing to an audience that have a right-to-left writing system, in that case invert what I suggested, I suppose.
- omegaworks 9y ago
  Kind of makes sense with the F-shaped eye line. [0] Most people are going to see the title of the article click on it and immediately see the little itty bitty glacier on the full color picture of the mountain. This helps cement the idea that this is an article about the current state of the mountain and not a historical piece. 0. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-we...
- smileysteve 9y ago
  It depends what you are trying to convey. There are definitely reasons to choose the positioning from present past in left-to-right. In this example, you see what it is now, and you are SHOCKED when you see it used to have skiers on it. The shock should actually be less the more time is considered, if you had it from past to present.
- NegativeLatency 9y ago
  I think they wanted to get the skier in the scene
pm90 9y ago
I am definitely a climate change believing liberal whatever, but looking at this phenomena over a long term... haven't we had ice ages in the past where there were a lot more glaciers? I guess my question really is: is this something we should be sad about, or just accept as a part of the cycle of the earth (albeit this time being caused due to man-made causes)?
- myth_drannon 9y ago
  natural changes like ice ages take thousands of years. What we see now is a rapid in front of your eyes change.
- komaromy 9y ago
  I'm not so much sad about it as scared that it's going to cause a near-extinction of humanity. I'm confident that the biodiversity of the planet will recover in the long term.
  - BurningFrog 9y ago
    I worry that well meaning "scare propaganda" makes some people think near-extinction of humanity is a real possible consequence of global warming. For one thing, I wonder if any extra suicides are caused by this?
- anvandare 9y ago
  The passing of things is the way of all things, but it's a sad sensation still. I think this is what is called 'mono no aware' in Japanese.
- sapienthomo 9y ago
  We are still in this ice age, technically speaking, but it is waning. At the peak of this ice age the ice was 2-3 miles high across much of North America. But human population exploded during this interglacial period, which is clearly favorable to us. The population of humans on earth has increased 20x in the last 1000 years, a rate of increase that relies in large part on fossil water. When the ice age ends and the glaciers are gone what are all those people going to drink? Humanity faces a monumental technical challenge in providing for themselves that which nature has heretofore provided, else it faces a significant reduction in population.
omegaworks 9y ago
How will this impact the sustainability of Venezuela as an independent country? Will it still be able to feed its people without glacier water?
- anodari 9y ago
  >Mountain glaciers serve as a crucial buffer as they help to provide water (as melt water) when rainfall is minimal or nonexistent (Vuille et al., 2008), such as during the dry season or during drought conditions. This implies that some melting is necessary to fuel the existing hydrologic processes and fulfil consumption needs. https://na.unep.net/geas/getUNEPPageWithArticleIDScript.php?article_id=104 https://na.unep.net/geas/getUNEPPageWithArticleIDScript.php?...
- tbihl 9y ago
  To be fair, Venezuela hasn't been able to feed its people properly even WITH these glaciers (not to mention the enormous oil wealth.) With a functioning economy, you can overcome a lot of natural obstacles (see Singapore).
dfps 9y ago
... for now

62 points by fern12 9y ago

I have been fascinated with glaciers my entire life. I live in the Pacific Northwest, and it is fortunate that we still have them. It is a shame that my grandchildren might not get to experience their beauty and splendor.

nathancahill 9y ago

Shame. I biked up to one of the last glaciers in Colombia. Got to see them before they are gone.

silveira 9y ago

Slightly unrelated: when juxtaposing pictures in a before-after presentation, but the before picture before (left), and the after picture, after (right). In the original picture from Wikimedia used in this article (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pico_Bol%C3%ADvar_1950-2011.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pico_Bol%C3%ADvar_19...), it was already in left-to-right order, someone took the effort to invert it. Unless you are writing to an audience that have a right-to-left writing system, in that case invert what I suggested, I suppose.

omegaworks 9y ago
Kind of makes sense with the F-shaped eye line. [0] Most people are going to see the title of the article click on it and immediately see the little itty bitty glacier on the full color picture of the mountain. This helps cement the idea that this is an article about the current state of the mountain and not a historical piece. 0. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-we...
smileysteve 9y ago
It depends what you are trying to convey. There are definitely reasons to choose the positioning from present past in left-to-right. In this example, you see what it is now, and you are SHOCKED when you see it used to have skiers on it. The shock should actually be less the more time is considered, if you had it from past to present.
NegativeLatency 9y ago
I think they wanted to get the skier in the scene

pm90 9y ago

I am definitely a climate change believing liberal whatever, but looking at this phenomena over a long term... haven't we had ice ages in the past where there were a lot more glaciers? I guess my question really is: is this something we should be sad about, or just accept as a part of the cycle of the earth (albeit this time being caused due to man-made causes)?

myth_drannon 9y ago
natural changes like ice ages take thousands of years. What we see now is a rapid in front of your eyes change.
komaromy 9y ago
I'm not so much sad about it as scared that it's going to cause a near-extinction of humanity. I'm confident that the biodiversity of the planet will recover in the long term.
- BurningFrog 9y ago
  I worry that well meaning "scare propaganda" makes some people think near-extinction of humanity is a real possible consequence of global warming. For one thing, I wonder if any extra suicides are caused by this?
anvandare 9y ago
The passing of things is the way of all things, but it's a sad sensation still. I think this is what is called 'mono no aware' in Japanese.
sapienthomo 9y ago
We are still in this ice age, technically speaking, but it is waning. At the peak of this ice age the ice was 2-3 miles high across much of North America. But human population exploded during this interglacial period, which is clearly favorable to us. The population of humans on earth has increased 20x in the last 1000 years, a rate of increase that relies in large part on fossil water. When the ice age ends and the glaciers are gone what are all those people going to drink? Humanity faces a monumental technical challenge in providing for themselves that which nature has heretofore provided, else it faces a significant reduction in population.

omegaworks 9y ago

How will this impact the sustainability of Venezuela as an independent country? Will it still be able to feed its people without glacier water?

anodari 9y ago
>Mountain glaciers serve as a crucial buffer as they help to provide water (as melt water) when rainfall is minimal or nonexistent (Vuille et al., 2008), such as during the dry season or during drought conditions. This implies that some melting is necessary to fuel the existing hydrologic processes and fulfil consumption needs. https://na.unep.net/geas/getUNEPPageWithArticleIDScript.php?article_id=104 https://na.unep.net/geas/getUNEPPageWithArticleIDScript.php?...
tbihl 9y ago
To be fair, Venezuela hasn't been able to feed its people properly even WITH these glaciers (not to mention the enormous oil wealth.) With a functioning economy, you can overcome a lot of natural obstacles (see Singapore).

dfps 9y ago

... for now