Guardians of the Glacier

We usually envision South America’s landscape as the lush biodiversity of the Amazon, or the arid plateau of the Atacama Desert in Chile, the second driest place on Earth. Yet South America is also home to some of the world’s most iconic glaciers, with icy peaks calling Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, and even Colombia home.

However, the Southern Patagonian Ice fields are one of the largest ice expanses in the Southern Hemisphere. Sadly, these glaciers are also melting at one of the fastest rates in the world.

Our world’s ice is shrinking.

And while these melting ice sheets and glaciers contribute to sea level rise, they’re also changing the height of the ground. That’s right, melting glaciers are actually responsible for an uplift in the Patagonian landscape. Seismologists and geologists record that the loss of glacial weight (as it melts) causes the Earth to rebound and rise.

Protecting our glaciers has never been more important. Stay cool, save the ice.

This award-winning photograph was shortlisted in the Solutions Category of the COP28 Photography Competition, a collaboration between The Climate Tribe and the Hamdan bin Mohamed bin Rashid al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA). The Climate Tribe has partnered with HIPA to leverage the power of photography to inspire global awareness of sustainability and advance climate action.