Which country will have the honor of losing their last glacier or perennial ice?

[Espen]

Which country will have the honor of losing their last glacier or perennial ice in modern times?

Breaking News:
There will be news very soon that might save someone's face and amaze others, more on this later!

[Espen]

Before we start any discussions about Glaciers or at least perennial ice, the latter covers all terms of ice, be it glaciers, firns, ice-fields or what have you, I in no way want something that just reminds of the Tesla discussion elsewhere, which unfortunately is a subject which is pure fly swatting.
And by the way if something once was named a glacier it is still a glacier in my world, no matter how small it is today!!!!!

[Espen]

There are probably several different opinions about where we should start to locate this event, but after following the situation for quite some time, I believe I have found a group of countries that are facing finding that they are facing losing something significant for their self-understanding especially, I can for sure say that at least 2 of the countries on my list have the public opinion that they will lose something valuable.

The time has come where we will soon see the first country lose the last natural perennial ice, which includes glaciers, firns, icefields and whatever else there may be of natural perennial ice in that country.

Funnily enough I have found the country that will very likely be the first country to lose their last perennial ice and it was still a big glacier not so many decades ago.

And what I find most interesting about this is that I have found no documentation that any professional in the scientific world has even mentioned this possibility?

To be continued!

[Espen]

Here I bring the list with the countries that will be in play for the country that within a very short period will lose their natural perennial ice first in modern times:

Venezuela

Indonesia

Kenya

DR Congo

Uganda

I know someone will say there are more, but I would also like to say that I have taken these, of which one of these countries has the "honour" of being first and regardless of which of these countries it may be, there will be no perennial ice again unless something is going very wrong here and I'm not talking about global cooling!

[Espen]

Mount Stanley, part of the Rwenzori Range is the highest mountain in both DR Congo and Uganda, the border goes exactly through Margherita Peak which is the highest point of Mount Stanley (5109 meters), below this colossus you will find some of the most beautiful nature in the world, with everything from gorillas to very special plants and vegetation that can only be found here.

But up near the top is the Alexandra Glacier, which lies with the vast majority of its remaining ice mass, which is now less than 10,000 m2 or 1 hectare, on the DR Congo side of the border, and is the only natural ice mass left in the DR Congo.

This ice mass is smaller in terms of area than what we see in e.g. in Venezuela (Humboldt Glacier), which by many including myself thought would be the first country to lose natural perennial ice where the area is about 16,000 m2 at present. But interestingly, no one has previously, as far as I know, mentioned/named DR Congo as a challenger in this sad competition?

Please click on image to enlarge and animate!

[John_the_Younger]

Before we start any discussions about Glaciers or at least perennial ice, the latter covers all terms of ice, be it glaciers, firns, ice-fields or what have you, I in no way want something that just reminds of the Tesla discussion elsewhere, which unfortunately is a subject which is pure fly swatting.
And by the way if something once was named a glacier it is still a glacier in my world, no matter how small it is today!!!!!

As permafrost includes perennial ice and freezing cold dirt/rock, I wonder how much permafrost exists near these glacial remnants and how fast permafrost melts/warms when the cold from above is only seasonal (after a glacier or ice-field melts). 

I 'met' rock glaciers 50 years ago in southern Colorado where there were still a couple of tiny glaciers remaining, which I didn't 'meet.'  They say most of the glaciers in the region melted 15,000 years ago.

[Espen]

Already derailed what else could you expect?

[Riverside]

Espen, thanks for reducing my general ignorance about tropical glaciers a bit (this thread and other earlier posts). I would never have guessed there were any in DR Congo or Uganda.
So I assume you are predicting that Venezuela will be the next country to lose its remaining glacier(s)? Do you have a candidate for one after that?
It's kind of a sad competition.

[Espen]

Espen, thanks for reducing my general ignorance about tropical glaciers a bit (this thread and other earlier posts). I would never have guessed there were any in DR Congo or Uganda.
So I assume you are predicting that Venezuela will be the next country to lose its remaining glacier(s)? Do you have a candidate for one after that?
It's kind of a sad competition.

Riverside,

Thank you for your comments and reflections on this, in my opinion, interesting topic, especially since each of these countries has a self-understanding of their country is so vast that it also has eternal snow (ice), here I am thinking especially of Venezuela and the city of Merida, and not least Indonesia, where schoolchildren have learned about nature's gift to them for generations.

It is not certain that the DR Congo will be the first of these countries to lose the last perennial natural ice, but they currently have the smallest area of ​​this ice left than any other country I know of, but this is from 2D perspective from satellites which does not show the volume, which I am very uncertain about, but I know that the competitor from Venezuela has about 40 - 50% larger area, but there I know from recent photos with and without thermoplastic that the volume is very strained, and that can say poof with a few days' notice.