0.30
My name is Carlos Dominguez and I am one of the guides working here over Lash Perito Moreno. I spent the last years working here. Every glacier is beautiful, but this is very spectacular because of the dimension, the colors, but also is the easy access.
One of the natural wonders of South America, the glacier Perito Moreno is in the heart of the Patagonian ice field. This glacier is an icon of Argentina, famed for the ice falls known as carving. Visitors make the long journey to the remote southern tip of the continent from across the world.
It can be seen from walkways nearby and by boat. But for a truly unique experience, there is the trek up onto the glacier. As we begin to take in the magnitude of what we're about to see, Carlos Dominguez brings up an issue that has become the most important talking point about Perito Moreno.
1.30
*Exactly here, the glacier was covering this rock roughly two years and a half ago. And if we stare to the east, the glacier was pushing the debris over there years ago or a little less. So the recessive trend of the glacier in this lateral margin southern margin is in the order of 100 mters per year more or less. We noticed the change started like 10 years ago. 10 years ago the glacier edge was there and little by little started to recede by general meltdown of the glacier surface.*
Some groups of tourists climb onto the glacier at the nearest point, but we continue our hike further along the side of the glacier to be able to climb up higher and get a clearer idea of the sheer scale of Perito Moreno.
This glacier stretches some 30 km up into the mountains and measures roughly 5 km across. Its total area is larger than the city of Buenosides or the size of four Manhattan islands.
3.06
We find crevices and lakes tinted with deep ice blue. *Well, it is basically because of the refraction of the light passing through the ice is not the total spectrum. Only blue is able to travel deep in and come back by refraction because of the wavelength is shorter.*
We continue to climb and take in its majestic immensity. This glacier Perito Moreno is one of the largest glaciers in South America. Every year thousands of tourists visit. For many years it was considered stable, but that has changed. With over two decades experience, our guide Carlos Dominguez is alarmed by what he now sees.
*Since the last five years, we notice a recessive trend in both lateral margins. The northern margin a little more than the southern margin, but at least each one has receded at a rate of a bit more than 100 meters per year. But the very very center of the glacier, it is the place where the change has been more dramatic.
4.23
*We end the last season by the end of May and when we came back to start the this season by mid July, the front over there that is near the Valcones area has received at least m. And have you ever seen anything like that before? No, never. Never. Never before.*
In just two months this year, the guides here saw part of the glacier retreat the length of more than one and a half football fields.
5.42
Lucas Ruiz grew up in Patagonia. He is one of the glaciologists who has studied the region's glaciers for many years now.
6.15
The glacier is named after Perito Moreno, the explorer who discovered it. There are 49 glaciers in the Patagonian ice field, over 17,000 glaciers across Argentina. Many tourists come hoping to witness one of the dramatic ice falls. *I was waiting to see it cuz we walked before for a couple hours and we didn't see anything like that. So, I'm glad that we decided to walk again and I was able to see it cuz it it was spectacular. Mhm.*
7.45
*I didn't know about that before I read all the signs here that it was it used to be a lot closer and that climate change was changing that. Yeah, definitely. I think that the whole world should do something to address climate change because, you know, the earth is beautiful and we should we should keep it this way.*
What is happening to Perito Moreno in the south of Argentina is happening to glaciers around the world. The Patagonian ice field straddles the Andes mountains between Chile and Argentina, forming the world's third largest mass of ice after Antarctica and Greenland. As the world's freshwater reserves, the melting of the world's glaciers and ice fields form part of the discussions at COP 30. The United Nations names 2025 the year of glaciers preservation.
*2024 has been one of the worst years in 50 years in terms of mass lost by glaciers. We need to discuss glaciers in that context. We need to see them as our heritage but also our lifeline. We have many types of international years and this really about bringing those key burning issues but that have a long-term impact on the agenda on the global agenda. In the case of glaciers, we have not only the public but also the scientific community and the whole concept of what water means for life on Earth. This idea from source to sea, you know, from the glacier up to the sea, this is finally the same water.*
9.45
In Patagonia, we visited the glacier museum. The building is modeled on Perito Moreno. Luciano Bernaci is one of the museum directors.
*And glaciers for me are very interesting because it's the only change you see in the landscape that you can actually see during your lifetime. Everything else takes a lot longer except for like volcano or a earthquake. But I always say that we are not trained to see geological change in our lifetime. However, what I've seen here in the last 20-30 years or even 10 years, it's amazing. We can now go and to a place where it's a huge several mile long lake and I have photos crossing that on the ice not so long ago.*
Bonacci is a mountain guide who is also involved in glacier research and field work. He has experience in both polar regions of the world.
*Perito Moreno is our star glacier, the most famous one for several reasons. It's very pretty surrounded by forest. It has a very easy access. It was considered to be stable or what we call a near steady state for about 100 years since 1917 until now actually a few years ago we considered it was stable. It didn't really change outside some minimal seasonal fluctuations.
Sometime in 2019-2020 it's uncertain still we started seeing changes and it did not recover every winter like it did in the past and then more and then more and then more- and clearly now we can safely say with evidence that it has been retreating for the last 5-6 years.*
11.22
He says much more work is needed to fully comprehend what is happening to the glacier.
*The world weather organization basically says that you can't really talk about climate or trends until you have 30 years of data and and we do have 30 years of data near the snout or the end of the Moreno but there's very very little on on the higher area in the accumulation area which is basically the ice field; so what we would need is a million things basically more weather stations more people more funding a lot of things but you know. With a few resources available there's a lot being done.*
The national parks authorities have been using drones to collect images that help scientists. Drones are able to take photographs that help scientists determine not only the surface area of the glacier, but also and crucially, the mass.
13.12
UNESCO hopes that promoting the year of glaciers preservation will increase public awareness and also help form government policy. *And this needs both engagement needs policies and needs science for those policies. The more we know about the glaciers, the better policies we can have. This is a little bit where we as UNESCO come in. We are looking to produce more and more science about the glaciers so that governance can make better informed decisions.*
Yet under President Javier Mille, Argentina withdrew its delegation from last year's summit at COP 29 and MLE has suggested he may take Argentina out of the Paris climate agreement.
Perito Moreno is located in a national park so it is protected. But Argentina's government has suggested relaxing its law that protects glaciers, many of which are found near areas that could be of interest to mining companies. For investigators and researchers, the issue is increasingly urgent.
14.42
We spoke to Lucas Ruiz in Chile. He's no longer working in Argentina close to Perito Moreno. And as part of Argentina President Mile's austerity push, wages for scientists and funding for projects has been frozen or cut for Argentina.
Lucas Ruiz remains in touch with colleagues and friends in Argentina and they continue working together. Carlos Dominguez doubles up as a guide but also as part of the team that continues to monitor the state of the glacier. The cooperation is since they cannot spend the whole year here and we come here daily; we have the chance to maintain instruments in function; check out take data send data to Lucas and other glaciologists that are in different programs to research the glacier.
16.14
The example of Lucas is interesting because it is the only team that really went to the snow accumulation area to measure with the instruments the real accumulated snow in the recent years. And the program was to do it several times because for scientific investigations you need a thick amount of data and statistics to then publish something. We went over there only twice and then no more financial support make it impossible to continue. And that is the open question because we know the glacier is shrinking down here but maybe it is partially due to warming down here but maybe also reduced accumulation of the snow in the upper part. But we cannot establish this since we don't have the necessary data.
***
[KE: Everything climate scientists predicted about global warming/ climate change since the 1970s is coming true, only faster]
