This glacier will be gone in anywhere from 5-15 years. You can see the steady stream of meltwater flowing down the mountainside. Get your fill of the snowcapped Andes while you still can. Same goes for Kilimanjaro, which they give 5-7 tops. Sucks. And the most ironic part? The enormous Camisea gas fields pumping night and day just 60 km away in the steamy jungle, satisfying the enormous gringo demand for gas by exporting tankerful after tankerful to SoCal so we can keep the AC going all summer long.
I'm back in Cusco for a few days after 5 in Quillabamba volunteering with COMARU. Lots to say but that'll have to wait for another post.
2 comments:
I wouldn't say that it is purely "gringo" demand.
What about all those cute taxis in arequipa? Do they run on clean energy?
I suspect not.
Nope, they sure don't... but guess what Anonymous: With 5% of the world's population, the US consumes over 25% of the planet's petroleum resources. And nearly 100% of the gas produced by Peru's biggest hydrocarbon project, Camisea, is piped to the coast for export to the US, practically none of it bound for domestic use.
And did you SEE the photos of those "cute Arequipa taxis" I was talking about? They're tiny! This isn't a country of 3 car garages and 45-minute solo commutes, my friend. Far from it: there are still an alarming number of people living without electricity and cooking with wood, not gas. And don't even get me started on car culture... If we´re to identify those most responsible for Global Warming (and those morally obligated to make the biggest sacrifices and changes in the future), there's no way anyone can legitimately claim Peruvians bear anything close to the same blame as us gringos. Sorry, but that's my position, and I'm sticking to it.
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