Lima, March 16, 2007.- The Secretary General of the Andean Community, Freddy Ehlers, considered it urgently important to create a collective awareness of the problem of global warming and asked for the involvement of all population sectors, from officials and specialists to entrepreneurs and students.   

He pointed out that the seriousness of the problem merits not only a joint worldwide effort by specialists, advisors and officials to study, analyze and define the problem, but also calls for the global population to become aware of what lies in store for it in the immediate future unless the necessary steps are taken.   

He explained that this issue, which up until only five years ago was not to be found on the integration agenda, has been incorporated as a priority.  Work has been started on the designing of an Andean strategy and on the start-up of the Andean Institute for Biodiversity (AIB) that will make it possible to investigate natural species, among other things, considering that thus far only two percent have been studied.     

The CAN Secretary General considers it important to “be alert to” the increasingly troubling signs of global warming that have become evident in recent times, like the rising of the tides; the heat wave that recently touched off flash fires in Colombia; the torrential rainfalls that have hit Bolivia; and the abnormally high temperatures that Ecuador has been experiencing, among others.   

He indicated that perhaps the clearest sign of global warming is the rapid retreat of Andean glaciers, our essential solid reserves of freshwater.  Freddy Ehlers went on to add that according to the IPCC (United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which groups together the various international investigations in this area), many of these glaciers will have completely disappeared in 20 or 30 years’ time. 

He noted that in Latin America, most of the tropical glaciers are located in the Andes.  "71% are to be found in Peru, 20% in Bolivia, 4% in Ecuador and 4% in Colombia", he stated, citing data taken from a report that was presented at a scientific meeting held in Huaraz (Peru) in October 2005.