Indonesia’s tropical ‘Eternity Glaciers’ could vanish within a few years, experts warn

El Niño weather pattern could accelerate melting of 12,000-year-old glaciers, with one expert saying he was now able to document their ‘extinction’

Two of the world’s few tropical glaciers in Indonesia are melting, and their ice may vanish by 2026 or sooner, as an El Niño weather pattern lengthens the dry season, the country’s geophysics agency has said.

Indonesia, home to a third of the world’s rainforest after Brazil and Congo, expects the dry season could run until October as El Niño increases the risk of forest fires and threatens supplies of clean water.