Jakarta : Indonesia’s “eternal snow,” Asia’s last two tropical glaciers, are projected to disappear by 2027, the country’s meteorology agency said on Tuesday, as global warming has dramatically accelerated ice melt.
Perched on Puncak Jaya, a mountain surrounded by dense rainforests in Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua, the Carstenz Glacier and the East Northwall Fin are remnants of the last Ice Age and have existed for around 5,000 years.
The Papuan glaciers have undergone a rapid loss of coverage and thickness in the past three decades that will cause the ice sheets to completely disappear by next year, Indonesia’s Meteorological, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency BMKG has found.
“The loss of ice in Puncak Jaya has been dramatic over the last century,” BMKG said in a statement to Arab News.
“Based on current retreat rates, the glaciers are expected to disappear completely no later than 2026 or 2027.”
