ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses how glacial retreat caused by climate change is putting the poorest people in Ecuador at grave risk. It is estimated that all Andean glaciers below 16,400 feet will melt by 2030. The loss of the Andean iceworld, driven by a rate of warming that is twice the global average, is heavily affecting both rural and urban water supplies. Having adequate drinking water depends on the Andean rivers and lakes, which in turn depend on the annual meltwater from the mountains. Adding to the problem in rural area, small farmers have, over generations, been pushed up to higher mountain elevations by large landowners. Now these higher areas are becoming inhospitable to poor farmers as the availability of water diminishes. These farmers, recognizing the linkage of climate change to their own poverty, have attempted to adapt to climate change by driving rich farmers’ cattle down to lower elevations, limiting the numbers of their own animals allowed at higher elevation, cleaning out miles of old water channels, banning the burning of the land, and resisting mining companies. In their view, inequality and colonialism caused climate change, but they are suffering the consequences.
