"SANTIAGO - Recent glacier retreat across the Andes is unprecedented in the history of human civilization, according to a new study published in the Science journal on Thursday.

The discovery shocked scientists, who initially planned to study the current state of glaciers and how they had varied throughout human civilization.

"We thought this result was decades away," said Andrew Gorin, lead author of the study, who first believed the initial results were a fluke, but were confirmed by later samples."

Alexander Villegas reports for Reuters August 1, 2024. [2]