Before the term “climate change” entered the lexicon, residents of Peru’s Santa River Valley knew the dangers of melting ice. Since the 1940s more than 25,000 people in this Cordillera Blanca mountain region have died in avalanches and “outburst floods,” which occur when glacial lakes breach their natural dams. Survivors rebuilt in the danger zone, forcing the government to focus on disaster prevention. Meanwhile, a hydroelectric plant, now operated by U.S.-based Duke Energy, made the Santa River important to Peru’s power grid. Mark Carey, assistant professor of history at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, documents the uneasy relationship between people and the region’s icy peaks in his book, “In the Shadow of Melting Glaciers: Climate Change and Andean Society” (Oxford University Press, 2010). Carey is part of a team studying glacial-melt flows through the Santa watershed and how the shrinking of glaciers will affect ecosystems and water users. He spoke with EcoAméricas correspondent Barbara Fraser. [Log in to read more]

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