Conclusive proof of human activity causing glacier to vanish

Captain Prat blagger cuffed with hot ice slung in cooler

Even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has had to walk back on the idea that the world's glaciers will all be gone within decades due to human-caused carbon powered global warming: but news has now emerged showing that in at least one case human action has absolutely indisputably led to the disappearance of large chunks of glacier.

Chilean media reported last week that plods in Patagonia have arrested a man driving a refrigerated lorry loaded with more than five tonnes of ice allegedly stolen from the Jorge Montt glacier in the Bernardo O'Higgins national park. It's theorised that the frosty burglar intended to sell off his haul as designer ice cubes in the capital Santiago.

According to local news service Emol, Chilean prosecutors believe that the truck driver wasn't working alone: he was part of an organised ring of ice bandits headed by an unnamed kingpin residing in Santiago. The stolen lorry-load of glacier lumps is thought to have a street value of around 3 million pesos - approximately £4,000.

Reportedly the local forestry-bureau chief in the southerly Capitán Prat Province* filed a complaint with prosectuors over the glacier robberies last month, leading to the seizure of the hot ice by federal carabineros. The Chilean cops are mulling charges of "crimes against the national heritage" in addition to petty theft. ®

*The province is named after the Chilean naval hero Arturo Prat.