Peru’s Quelccaya glacier could disappear within 10 years, specialist says

Peru’s Quelccaya glacier, the largest in the tropics, could disappear within 10 years, Jose Machare, a climate change specialist at Peru’s Geological Society told state news agency Andina.

Studies of Quelccaya during the last 30 years have found the glacier retreated at an average rate of 6 meters per year during the first 15 years and 60 meters per year in the last 15. This year, it is expected to retreat 150 meters as a result of an unprecedented increase in global temperatures.

“Right now we are in a period of warming, the temperature will become warmer than the normal curve until we begin a new glaciation period,” Machare said. “This is caused by various human factors.” Read more…

Puno’s freezing temperatures expected to continue until weekend

Freezing temperatures in southern Peru’s Puno department are expected to last until at least Saturday, according to the national meteorological and hydrological service,  Senamhi.

Temperatures in Puno dropped last week to their lowest levels this year. In the city of Puno, the temperature fell to -4C degrees, -13C degrees in Juliaca, -15C degrees in Crucero and -23C degrees in Masocruz.

Peru’s minister of Women, Nidia Vilchez, announced that 250 tonnes of food would be provided to residents in 65 Puno districts to help weather the cold, state news agency Andina reported. Read more…

Obama: U.S. to continue to support Peru’s democracy, human rights issues

The United States will continue to work with Peru to promote democracy, human rights, press freedoms, economic development and poverty reduction, President Barack Obama told reporters following a meeting on Tuesday with the President of Peru, Alan García.

“These are all issues on which President García has some excellent track records of success in his own country,” Obama said. “We want to continue to be an effective partner with Peru as they continue to grow and develop.” Read more…

IMF: Peru to lead Latin American growth over next 5 years

Peru’s economy is expected to lead Latin America’s growth during at least the next five years, the director of the International Monetary Fund’s Western Hemisphere Department, Nicolás Eyzaguirre, said.

“It is not politically incorrect to say that Peruvian authorities are administrating with great wisdom a group of first generation reforms and has a more solid economic policy,” Eyzaguirre told state news agency Andina.

The IMF’s director general, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said during a recent visit to Lima that he expects the country’s GDP to expand by 7 percent in 2010, while Peruvian and international economists have been predicting growth between 5 and 6 percent this year.

Meanwhile, a report by Peru’s central bank said it expects the country’s GDP will be negatively affected in the long term by climate change.

According to daily Peru.21, the country’s central bank expects the GDP to be 6.8 percent less in 2030 thanks to climate events.

“In Peru’s case, there is a high vulnerability due to a change in temperature and precipitation, but also because 60 percent of the population lives in the arid coastal zones, because 60 percent of agriculture depends on rain and because 60 percent of electricity is generated by [hydro].”

Environment Minister Antonio Brack previously said he expects Peru will require $400 million annually to mitigate affects from climate change.

Peru to require $400 million annually for programs to mitigate climate change

Peru will require some $400 million annually to mitigate affects from climate change, Environment Minister Antonio Brack said Thursday.

“We have done some calculators on how much it will cost to adapt to climate change and we arrived at an amount of approximately $400 million annually,” state news agency Andina reported Brack as saying. “This involves, among other things, programs for forest conservation, biodiversity and management of basins.” Read more…

Government agency to receive two stations for monitoring glacial retreat

The national meteorological and hydrological service Senamhi will receive two stations that will allow the agency to monitor and study glacial retreat in the Mantaro and Urubamba river basins, located in Peru’s central Junin and southern Cuzco regions, respectively, state news agency Andina reported.

The stations are being provided as part of the Adaptation to the Impact of the Accelerated Retreat of Glaciers in the Tropical Andean Region (PRAA) project, which is financed by the World Bank and the Washington D.C.-based Global Environment Facility. Read more…

Lima’s water supply to decrease by 25 percent over next 10 years

The supply of water in Peru’s capital Lima will decrease by 25 percent over the next 10 years, the director of the National Hydraulic Laboratory at the National University of Engineering, Julio Kuroiwa, said.

Upon taking office in July 2006, President Alan Garcia immediately launched a national plan called “Agua para todos,” or “water for all,” with the goal of providing universal access to water to millions of impoverished Peruvians — most of them in Lima — by the end of his mandate in 2011.

But water supplies along Peru’s coast, where the majority of the nation’s population is located, are scarce and fragile. Andean glaciers are in a state of accelerated melt due to global climate change and Lima’s growing populations is making increasing demands on its aquifer and runoff from rivers, which are highly contaminated with metals from mines in the highlands.

“The current situation is critical. You have to consider that 1.5 million people don’t have water in Lima,” state news agency Andina quoted Kuroiwa as saying. “So, when they begin receiving this service there will be a significant reduction, which is why it is urgent to begin looking for mechanisms to conserve.”

“We are currently using 100 percent of water from the Rímac River,” Lima’s main water source, Kuroiwa said.  Read more…

Peru goes dark during Earth Hour 2010

Residents in Peru’s capital Lima switched off their lights Saturday evening joining thousands of cities and millions of people around the globe who took part in the World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour 2010.

Earth Hour took place from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. local time in 125 counties to make a statement against climate change, Radio Programs Peru reported organizers as saying.

In downtown Lima, the Plaza de Armas and surrounding buildings – the Government Palace and Basilica Cathedral of Lima – went dark for an hour, while various parks and buildings in Lima’s popular tourist district Miraflores also switched off their lights.

Peru’s other major cities, including Cuzco, Trujillo and Arequipa, also took part in the event.

In Latin America, lights went out in major cities and important icons from the avenue bordering the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to 175 historical archeological sites, including the Mayan monument Chichen Itza, in Mexico.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Last year’s Earth Hour was the largest, with more than 4,000 cities in 88 countries officially switched off.

Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

Brack: Lima’s water supply secure over next years

Lima’s water supply is secure over the next few years, however residents of the Peruvian capital should be using it responsibly, state news agency Andina reported Environment Minister Antonio Brack as saying.

He added that Lima has a sufficient supply of water from reservoirs and lakes, however climate change continues to affect the source of the city’s drinking water, the tropical glaciers located in the country’s highlands.

“The effects of climate change are being seen in Peru and the world. In the case of water supply, we are observing that there won’t be a shortage of this resource in the capital, but it needs to be used rationally, respecting the water cycle,” Brack said.

Water is a dire issue in Peru’s southern coastal area, home to one of the most arid regions in the world.

“The city of Tacna has grown rapidly and they have officially declared the exhaustion of water. That is to say, they should not sign more contracts for water use, because it’s not available. Something similar is occurring in Moquegua, where the shortage is a serious problem,” Brack added.

Peru is home to some 70 percent of Earth’s tropical glaciers. The country’s glaciers, which feed hydroelectric plants and provide drinking water to Lima, the world’s second largest desert city after Cairo, Egypt, are in the process of accelerated meltdown due to global warming.

According to Peru’s National Resources Institute, or Inrena, the Andes Mountains have lost at least 22 percent of their glacier area since 1970.

Scientists report colony of Galápagos fur seals in northern Peru

The Organization for Research and Conservation of Aquatic Animals, or Orca, says a colony of fur seals endemic to the Galápagos Islands have established a colony off the coast of northern Peru as a result of increased sea surface temperature in the region.

The colony includes 30 fur seals that traveled 1,500 kilometers, about 932 miles, from Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands to the Foca Island, located off the coast of Peru’s Piura department, daily El Comercio reported. The president of Orca, Carlos Yaipén, says the Foca colony is the first reported outside the Galápagos archipelago and due to an increase in sea temperature caused by climate change. Read more…

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