Climate change is producing profound changes globally. Yet we still know little about how it affects real people in real places on a daily basis because of most of our knowledge comes from scientific studies that try to estimate impacts and project future climate scenarios. In the Shadow of Melting Glaciers, illustrates in vivid detail how people in the Andes, where global climate change has generated the world's most deadly glacial lake outburst floods and glacier avalanches, have grappled with the effects of climate change and ensuing natural disasters for more than half a century. Successful scientific studies and engineering efforts to prevent additional catastrophes, it shows, have simultaneously helped commodity glaciers, erode local authority, and unleash contested modernization agendas. Book jacket.