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Mountain glaciers are melting faster than ever, a leading climate expert announced yesterday, and eerie effects of the thaw are being seen from the summits of South America to the highest peak in Africa.
In Peru alone, ice fields are disappearing so quickly that giant lakes have formed where meadows recently stood.
And retreating glaciers are exposing ancient plants that haven't been seen in 5,000 years.
Lonnie Thompson, an expert in ancient climates at Ohio State University, announced his findings yesterday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco, California.
Thompson's latest research has focused on measuring glaciers in the Andes mountain range, which spans seven South American countries, and on Mount Kilimanjaro in eastern Africa.
"One of the things that's very clear … is that the climate changes in those areas are unusual—unprecedented—in the thousands of years of history that we can look at in these places," Thompson said.
