Global warming in Chile threatens industry, water supplies

[babylonsister]

Global warming in Chile threatens industry, water supplies
By Jack Chang | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Tuesday, October 23, 2007


SAN JOSE DE MAIPO, Chile — With a population of 16 million people, Chile doesn’t produce much of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. But it’s paying the price.

Giant glaciers are disappearing. Mudslides are becoming more common. Snow no longer falls in the spring, replaced instead by tepid rains.

Last May, an entire lake in southern Chile disappeared practically overnight after the Tempano Glacier, which had acted as a dam, melted and destabilized.

“Without a doubt, global warming is the cause,” said Gino Casassa, a researcher at the nonprofit Center of Scientific Studies and a member of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “The only question now is what will be the effects for Chile over the next decades.”

The answers have been coming in at an alarming rate as scientists scramble to record the changes happening up and down the country’s mountainous spine.

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