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Puncak Jayawijaya to lose its ‘everlasting’ snow to climate change by 2025: BMKG
Puncak Jayawijaya, located in the Jayawijaya Mountains in Papua, is known for being the only place in Indonesia with snow. However, the BMKG says the “everlasting” snow could soon be a thing of the past.
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Puncak Jayawijaya, Indonesia's highest mountain, will soon lose its snow due to climate change. (Shutterstock via Kompas.com) (Shutterstock via Kompas.com/Shutterstock via Kompas.com)
O
ne of Indonesia’s most famous mountain peaks will lose its snow soon according to Indonesia’s Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysical Agency (BMKG). Puncak Jayawijaya, located in the Jayawijaya Mountains in Papua, is known for being the tallest mountain in Indonesia and one of the only places in Indonesia with snow.
However, the BMKG says the “everlasting” snow, which remains yearlong, could soon be a thing of the past.
“If warming and increases in temperature continue and climate change is not mitigated, then by 2025 it is predicted that there will no longer be ice on Puncak Jayawijaya,” said BMKG head Dwikorita Karnawation on Friday, as quoted by okezone.
According to Dwikorita, the shrinkage will have been caused by an acceleration in climate change. “This is despite a global agreement for a change of no more than 1 degree Celsius by 2030. This data is from 2016, so it precedes 2030. [Since then] it has already almost increased by 1.5 [degrees Celsius],” explained Dwikorita during a meeting with House of Representatives Commission V on Monday, as quoted from detiknews.
Dwikorita also stated that ice currently remained on only 2 square kilometers or 1 percent of the 200 sq. km of Puncak Jayawijaya, a far cry from its previous state. Other peaks in the Jayawijaya Mountains have already lost their ice, including Puncak Trikora which lost its ice cap between 1936 and 1962.
Puncak Jayawijaya is a limestone mountain standing 4,884 meters above sea level and is the highest island mountain peak on earth. It is also known as the Carstensz Pyramid, named after Jan Carstenszoon who noticed glaciers atop the peak in 1623. In Europe, Carstensz was ridiculed when he stated he had observed snow near the equator.
