Puncak Jaya's eternal snow vanishes in two years — SkimNews
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- Puncak Jaya's glaciers have shrunk from nearly 1,900 hectares in the 19th century to about 16 hectares today, with complete disappearance expected within one or two years.
- Marie Šabacká, a Czech glacier ecologist, visited Puncak Jaya in March to study its 'eternal snow' before it vanishes, calling it the last remaining tropical ice between the Andes and Himalayas.
- Ice cores from Puncak Jaya preserve critical records of regional atmospheric conditions and changes in the tropical Pacific and Western Pacific Warm Pool, now at risk of being lost.
- Adolfina Kum, an Amungme environmental activist, compares the melting of Nemangkawi — their sacred White Arrow mountain — to the destruction of Mecca or the Vatican for Muslims and Catholics.
- Klaus Thymann, a Danish researcher, used drones and 3D mapping to show that glaciated area around Puncak Jaya has receded by 95% from the early 2000s to 2025.
- Elfrida Natkime, a young Amungme woman, describes both awe and sadness at seeing the mountain transformed by mining operations and glacial loss, acknowledging economic benefits but lamenting exploitation.
Why it matters: For Indigenous Papuans, the loss of the glacier undermines cultural identity and spiritual continuity, while scientists lose a unique climate archive; the 95% glacial retreat in two decades offers stark evidence of rapid planetary warming driven by human activity.
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