An unprecedented phenomenon in the history of human civilization

Unpleasant surprises are becoming more frequent in climate matters. Specialists began to be surprised by certain events that are unfolding at a much higher speed than would have been anticipated. The recent retreat of the Andes glaciers is an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of human civilization, according to a new study published in the journal Science. The discovery shocked scientists, who had originally planned to examine the current state of the glaciers and how their sizes have varied over the course of human civilization. "We thought that this result would only be achieved in a few decades," said Andrew Gorin, the study's lead author, who initially thought the initial results were a fluke, but later samples confirmed them. "It shows us that this is happening faster than even those of us who think about it the most thought," he added. Andrew Gorin and his team of scientists carbon-dated the layer of rock that had recently been exposed to cosmic radiation following the retreat of the glaciers by measuring the levels of the nuclides Beryllium-10 and Carbon-14, and found that those concentrations were close to zero value. "Basically, if a rock can "see' the sky, it's accumulating those nuclides," Andrew Gorin said, adding that the decay rate of those nuclides shows the rock hasn't been exposed since the Holocene epoch, which dates back 11,700 years. , but it could be even older. "I would bet my entire life savings that, in fact, these glaciers are smaller than they have been since the last interglacial period," which ended about 115,000 years ago, Andrew Gorin added. The study collected data from four glaciers in the Andes, which comprise 99% of the tropical glaciers on Earth. Those glaciers are more sensitive to weather changes because they are constantly at or very close to the freezing point. A Reuters news agency correspondent recently climbed several mountains in the Andes to see first-hand the changes climbers were witnessing as the glaciers retreated. Many people described increasingly dangerous conditions and unprecedented changes in their lives. "I think it is a sign that we are now moving away from the climatic conditions we were used to and in which we built our global civilization, as we know it," the Reuters correspondent said. Specialists are concerned about this situation.