Chimborazo glaciers disappear

"All the time, the glacier moves higher ... I remember when I was a boy, the glacier was tremendous ... now, it's rock." - Punina Tuolombo, indigenous mountain guide The glaciers of Chimborazo, a volcano on Ecuador's eastern cordillera, has lost about 20% of its surface since the 1980s as a direct result of climate change, leaving the once snow-capped peak unrecognizable. The glacial melting alters the below paramo ecosystem and the water supply it depends on. This changing landscape poses serious threats to the area's endemic animals and plants, and the potential for the introduction of new invasive species.