It is a chimerical or hopeless choice, at least titanic: at 4700m in the southern Andes of Peru, a handful of men are painting the mountain in white. Their goal: to halt the melting of glaciers. For the Minister of Environment of Peru it's simply a "mistake". The World Bank (WB), which funds the project with 200,000 dollars, is at least one idea to explore. Eduardo Gold, the inventor behind the mad crusade has already started working. The science behind the project is known: the white reflects the sun's radiation, and thereby avoids the heating around it. In this case the rocks on the flanks Glacier Chalon Sombrero. Authorities such as Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of State of Energy and Physics Nobel Prize, expressed their hope in this type of alternative. But to paint the Andes, and their 3 000 km in just the Peru? "I am hopeful that we can get to regenerate a glacier here, recreating the conditions to its growth" says Gold. At 65 years old, Pablo Parco Palomino saw in 40 years the Chalon Sombrero turn into a rocky peak, but he believes in its rebirth. "If we succeed, we'll have as much water as before, before the disappearance of the glacier, and the land will be green again". At this altitude, where no crops can grow, the only source of income is the Alpacas and their wool. They painted 2 hectares in 15 days, twenty more to do on the Chalon Sombrero glacier. And 70 in total over the three points of the winning Gold Project in late 2009 by the World Bank as one of "100 ideas to save the planet." The idea was snubbed by the authorities, the Environment Minister Antonio Brack grumbling that 200,000 dollars had been better used "on projects with a greater impact on climate change." Gold does not care, and even if he's still waiting funds from the World Bank, he argues: "I prefer to test a solution and fail, than to try to imagine how to live without the glaciers as if the situation was irreversible". And on the Chalon Sombrero glacier, fields of white rocks are growing.
