Papua’s last tropical glaciers are vanishing
The treasured 'eternal snow' on this tropical island is about to disappear forever
Sunday, 27 September 2026
Warm-up
- Have you ever seen snow or glaciers in real life? Where?
- What places in your country are special for nature or culture?
- How is your area’s weather different from 10–20 years ago?
Vocabulary
- glacier
- A large, slow-moving mass of ice that forms on land.
- retreat
- The movement backwards; with glaciers, when they shrink and pull back.
- equator
- The imaginary line around the middle of the Earth.
- precipitation
- Water that falls from the sky, such as rain or snow.
- Indigenous
- Describing the original people of a place.
- archive
- A collection that keeps records or information for the future.
- habitat
- The natural home where a plant or animal lives.
- excavate
- To dig out earth or rock, often for mining or building.
Reading
Papua’s highest mountains sit close to the equator, yet their peaks once carried "eternal snow". Only small patches remain around Puncak Jaya, or Carstensz Pyramid. Scientists say these could disappear within a year or two.
Glacier cover has fallen from nearly 1,900 hectares in the 19th Century to about 16 hectares today. The glaciers’ retreat mirrors global warming from human activity, especially burning fossil fuels. As temperatures rise, the freezing level climbs and more precipitation arrives as rain, not snow. El Niño can speed this up.
Marie Šabacká, a glacier ecologist, says Papua holds the last tropical ice between the Andes and Himalayas. Scientists had been taking ice cores there to build a climate archive, but the record is vanishing.
For Indigenous Papuans, the range is a spiritual anchor. Amungme activist Adolfina Kum compares its loss to losing Mecca or the Vatican, and Moni woman Elfrida Natkime links the white peaks with honesty and moral paths. Mining at Freeport's Grasberg site has excavated slopes and reshaped habitats.
Comprehension
- Which mountain still has the last patches of snow in Papua?
- How much has glacier cover near the peak decreased since the 19th Century?
- What weather change happens as temperatures rise on the mountain?
- Who is the scientist quoted about Papua’s tropical ice, and what did scientists do there?
- Why is the mountain range important to Indigenous groups like the Amungme and Moni?
Grammar focus
Past perfect continuous
Use had been + verb‑ing for actions that were happening over time up to a past moment. This tense shows a continuous activity that finished or changed before another past event. (Example 2 constructed.)
- Scientists had been taking ice cores there to build a climate archive.
- Indigenous groups had been watching the snow recede for years.
Grammar exercise
Complete each sentence with the correct past perfect continuous form.
- Researchers (study) ___ glaciers for years before then.
- Locals (notice) ___ unusual melt for months by then.
- Villagers (climb) ___ peaks regularly before then.
- Miners (excavate) ___ slopes for decades by then.
- Scientists (measure) ___ ice every season before then.
Discussion
- Should governments protect cultural landscapes as strongly as wildlife habitats?
- What evidence in this story most clearly shows climate change?
- How can mining and local communities share benefits more fairly?
- What could tourists do to reduce harm when visiting fragile mountains?
Vocabulary, reading, and exercises with instant feedback
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