Venezuela , Loses Its Last Glacier , Amid Rising Global Temperatures.<br />BBC reports that scientists have warned that Venezuela <br />may be the first country to have lost all of its glaciers<br />after the nation's last glacier was downgraded to an ice field.<br />According to the International Cryosphere Climate <br />Initiative (ICCI), Venezuela's last remaining glacier <br />has now become "too small to be classed as a glacier.".<br />In the last 100 years, Venezuela <br />has lost at least six other glaciers.<br />As a result of global average temperatures rising, ice loss <br />is increasing globally, which in turn is raising sea levels.<br />There has not been much<br />ice cover on the last Venezuelan <br />glacier since the 2000s. Now it's <br />not being added to, so it has been <br />reclassified as an ice field, Dr Caroline Clason, a glaciologist at Durham University, via BBC.<br />According to researchers at the University of <br />Los Andes in Colombia, Venezuela's last glacier has <br />already shrunk from 450 hectares to under two.<br />BBC points out that while there is no global <br />standard for the minimum size that qualifies a body <br />of ice as a glacier, the United States Geological Survey <br />says 10 hectares is a commonly accepted minimum. .<br />The Venezuelan government's plan to cover the remaining <br />ice with a thermal blanket to stem the thawing process <br />was met with criticism from local climate scientists.<br />However, Professor Mark Maslin, a professor of earth <br />system sciences at University College London, cautioned <br />that mountain glacier loss was "not directly reversible.".<br />Once a glacier’s gone, <br />the sunlight heats the ground, <br />makes it much warmer and makes <br />it much less likely to actually <br />build ice up over the summer, Professor Mark Maslin, a professor of earth system <br />sciences at University College London, via BBC
