Colombia and Ecuador fight to save vital wetlands amid drought
Guatavita, Colombia/Paluguillo, Ecuador Reuters Rural communities in the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador are fighting to protect fragile high-altitude wetlands that regulate the area’s water cycles, as sharp water and energy rationing hit both nations. Colombia and Ecuador – both largely dependent on hydroelectric dams for energy – have been battered by a strong El […]
Postcards: In South America’s Andes, a shrinking Lake Titicaca rings climate alarm bell
MONICA MACHICAO and SERGIO LIMACHI, of Reuters, report on the impact of a long spell of drought on South America’s largest body of fresh water…
South America’s Lake Titicaca nears record low water level as El Nino bites
Lima, Peru Reuters The water level at Lake Titicaca on the Peru-Bolivia border is edging towards a record low, exacerbated by the weather phenomenon known as El Nino that is expected to get still more intense in coming months. The waters of the sprawling freshwater lake nestled in the Andes mountains have fallen an average […]
Updated: Ecuador landslide kills at least seven in the Andes, 23 hurt
Updated: 10:30am (AEST) Alausi, Ecuador Reuters A landslide triggered by heavy rains in Ecuador’s Andean region killed at least seven people, with 23 people hurt and almost 50 missing, the country’s risk agency said on Monday in a revised report on Twitter. Earlier, the agency reported that 16 people had died as a result of […]
In South America’s Andes, farmers pray for rain to end drought
Tihuanacu, Bolivia Reuters High in the mountains of the Bolivian Andes, farmer Alberto Quispe has one thing on his mind: rain. In the rural area of Tihuanacu, around 100 kilometres south-west of highland city La Paz, locals say there has been little rain this season during a dry spell across the Andean regions due to […]
In Bolivia, a battle over a receding glacier “doomed to disappear”
La Paz, Bolivia Reuters In the Andean mountains of Bolivia’s high western plains where snow lies powdered over dark rocks that rise into a hard gray sky, scientists and climbers are fighting for the future of a dying glacier that has become a controversial lure for tourists. The Charquini glacier, some 20 kilometres from the […]
Postcards: Chile’s record-breaking drought makes climate change “very easy” to see
ESTEBAN MEDEL, of Reuters, reports on Chile’s decades-long drought…
‘Mega-drought’ in Andes from climate change leaves some peaks without snow
Buenos Aires, Argentina Reuters The Andes Mountain range, which draws skiers to South America, is facing historically low snowfall this year during a decade-long drought that scientists link to global warming. Scant rain and snowfall are leaving many of the majestic mountains between Ecuador and Argentina with patchy snow cover or no snow at all […]
SOUTH AMERICA: SEX TRADE FLOURISHES IN PERU’S AMAZON DESPITE CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL MINING
ANASTASIA MOLONEY, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how, despite a military crackdown, prostitution is continuing around illegal mining activity in the Amazon…