Jakarta [Indonesia], September 1:The Puncak Jaya glacier in Indonesia's Papua Province, one of the world's few tropical glaciers, could disappear entirely by 2025, the head of climate change at the country's meteorology institute said on Thursday.
"The so-called zero-degree limit - the point at which water freezes - now lies at a greater altitude than the peak," Dodo Gunawan told DPA.
Oceania's highest peak lying on the island New Guinea is highly rated by alpinists all round the world. Its Carstenz Pyramid summit at more than 4,800 metres was first scaled only in 1962. "The temperature on Puncak Jaya has risen with global warming," Gunawan said. The current El Niño phenomenon has exacerbated the situation by causing far-reaching changes in currents and trade winds over the Pacific Ocean between South America and Indonesia.
Both the sea and the air above it have warmed up as a result. Puncak Jaya, which lies in the Lorentz National Park, one of South East Asia's largest conservation areas, is seen as a wonder of the natural world. The peak is regarded as holy by the local population.
The ice on its slopes forms the only glaciers in the entire South East Asian region. There are equatorial glaciers in the Andes in South America and in the Ruwenzori mountains in Africa. These too are disappearing.
Source: Qatar Tribune