GLOBAL WARMING: A silent threat

Do you know about Global warming?

This term has become popular in recent years. Many people comment about it, but, do we
really know what it is? We can talk about global warming when there is too much carbon
dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. This element covers the planet thoroughly like a huge
layer causing warming and high temperatures. This happens due to the burning of fossil
fuels such coal, natural gas and oil to get energy or also because many forests are burnt
to create plantations or even new factories. Carbon then is produced in quantity because
of these actions giving as a result the accumulation and overloading of the atmosphere.
The bad practices of some waste management processes make the problem worse by
producing other powerful global warming gases such as methane and nitrous oxide. Both
reasons sadly caused because of the selfishness and lack of conscience of the human
being.

How does it affect us?

The consequences of global warming are worse than we can suppose and we have had to
face tragedies like the one occurred in Armero Tolima.

Almost twenty two years ago, a whole town was wiped out from the face of the planet. Its
name was Armero and the exact date was November the 13th 1985. It was the direct
consequence of the eruption of Nevado del Ruiz (Del Ruiz peak). It turned around 11:30
in the evening when an avalanche produced in the Lagunilla river, derived from the
eruption of Arenas crater of Del Ruiz peak, buried the whole town. The river was
overloaded with lahar, a mud-flow of volcanic ash mixed with water. Thousands of tons of
snow from the volcanic peak were melted, high speed avalanches swept away everything
in its path at a roaring velocity, more than 350.000 cubic meters of mud, rocks, trees and
animals caused the Lagunilla river to overflow.

The scale of the catastrophe was unimaginable: more than 20.000 people killed,
thousands of injured men, women and children most of them with serious mutilations and
mental disorders. It was an announced tragedy. Every piece of news ever since claimed
that the situation could have prevented from happening since they were warned in many
occasions before that date.

What is the direct relation with global warming?

The melt of the glaciers all over the world, caused because of the global warming, affects
imminently tropical high mountain peaks of Colombia, put it at risk one of the most
attractive touristic destinations of the country.
We are talking about Los nevados national park. Los Nevados National Natural Park
extends over 58,000 hectares to the borders of municipalities such as Villamaria in Caldas;
Pereira and Santa Rosa de Cabal, Risaralda; Salento in Quindio; Villahermosa, Lbano,
Herveo and Ibague, Tolima.

In this area five volcanic craters are concentrated, most of them inactive. Nevado del Ruiz
(Del Ruiz peak) is the most popular and visited by tourists who go there. This place has
been attractive because it has the best access, besides presenting activity in recent
centuries, according to researchers from the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and
Environmental Studies (IDEAM).

Del Ruiz peak is the most majestic and beautiful mountain in its category of Colombia and
always has been affected by the problems of global warming, which increasingly reduces
the level of ice peaks. It is located at 5,300 meters above sea level, obtaining an area of
approximately 10 kilometers of glacier.

Nevertheless, this stunning act of nature has lost its appeal due to the current global
warming, or better known nowadays as "climate change" and it has experienced a rapid
loss of glaciers

The current glacier area of Del Ruiz peak is estimated at around 9-10 square kilometers,
but ten years ago its proportion increased to 12.5 kilometers. That is, it has lost a total of
two and almost three kilometers in the last decade and apart from climate change and the
greenhouse effect, direct consequences of global warming, recent reports indicate that
within two or three decades Colombia will have a fraction of the glaciers which means that
they will tend to disappear.

However, this factor has occurred around the world, especially reflected in Latin American
glaciers which have reduced in large size. All countries in the area of Latin America are
suffering the same problems of heating, and Colombia is not an exception, since studies in
Santa Isabel peak demonstrate that in the course of a year the snow fields and glaciers in
the mountain are decreasing in a progressive way. The same situation happens to Del
Cocuy and Quindio peaks. All of this is given as an answer to the dynamics of the
atmosphere that affects cycles of ecosystems and causes variations in the behavior of
nature.

What is happening to the water?

The global warming is not affecting only glaciers and peaks appearance, there is another
issue to bear in mind. Del Ruiz peak and Los nevados national park in general, supply a
great deal of drinking water consumed in the municipalities of Eje cafetero (coffee-
growing region). However; due to the effects of global warming, the water supplying starts
to get complicated, especially in the basins of the Rio Otun, Campo Alegre and Chinchin,
leaving not many options for supply in North Caldas.
The snow that has covered Del Ruiz peak threatens to disappear, another consequence of
climate change. According to studies of IDEAM, Del Ruiz peak has approx.10 square
kilometers left of glacier and snow, and the most optimistic predictions are giving it no
more than 20 years.

But Del Ruiz peak is not the only one experiencing this situation, in similar conditions we
can find the Tolima and Santa Isabel peaks, located on the equator. Santa Isabel peak is
the one to melt faster. Its glacier, stretching for 27 square kilometers in 1850, has been
reduced by 90 percent. From 5 square kilometers in the early 90s today has only 2.59
square kilometers, and according to predictions could be the next one to disappear from
the Colombian geography, followed by Tolima peak.

Urgent repopulation strategies of wooded areas and strategic ecosystems are applied in
order to counteract the effects of global warming on one of the wonders of nature located
around the center of Colombia.