News - Venezuela could become first country to lose all its glaciers

Venezuela may be the first nation in modern history to lose all its glaciers after climate scientists downgraded its last one to an ice field, reports BBC. The International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI), a scientific advocacy organization, said on X that the South American nation's only remaining glacier—the Humboldt, or La Corona, in the Andes—had become "too small to be classed as a glacier". Venezuela has lost at least six other glaciers in the last century. With global average temperatures rising due to climate change, ice loss is increasing, helping to raise sea levels around the world. In March, researchers at the University of Los Andes in Colombia told AFP the glacier had shrunk from 450 hectares to just two. While there is no global standard for the minimum size a body of ice must be to qualify as a glacier, the US Geological Survey says a commonly accepted guideline is around 10 hectares. In December, the Venezuelan government announced a project to cover the remaining ice with a thermal blanket it hoped would stem or reverse the thawing process. But the move drew criticism from local climate scientists, who warned that the covering could contaminate the surrounding habitat with plastic particles as it degraded, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais.