The Ohio State University Distinguished University Professor, Earth Sciences, Senior Research Scientist Lonnie Thompson recently returned from a three-week intensive trip to Peru, where he delivered the keynote address at the "Mountains: Our Future" symposium in Cusco. The event was sponsored by the National Institute for Research on Glaciers and Mountain Ecosystems (INAIGEM) in recognition of the United Nations' designation of 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation. This occasion was used to launch the Spanish-language version of Canary, premiering it at 12 universities and schools across Peru in Lima, Cusco, Puno, Arequipa, and Huaraz. At each stop, the launch of the Documentary Canary was used to make the case for establishing the Quelccaya region as a National Park. The team was genuinely amazed by how enthusiastically audiences in Peru received both the Spanish version of the film and the National Park proposal.

In Cusco, Canary was first shown to roughly 600 science participants as part of the symposium program on the evening of Thursday, October 23, followed on October 24 by a screening at the Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco. On October 25, we traveled to Puno for another screening before returning to Lima for additional showings of Canary on October 26 and then at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Catholic University of Peru) on October 27. On October 30, Canary was screened at a private school in Lima.

followed by a screening the same day at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, where I received an honorary doctoral degree in recognition of my research on Quelccaya and Huascarán

On November 1, we headed to Huaraz, where Canary was shown on November 3 at the Universidad Nacional Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo, Immediately after the screening, at 9 p.m., we boarded an overnight bus back to Lima to make a 9 a.m. meeting on November 4 with the President of Congress in the Parliament, again advocating for the creation of Quelccaya National Park. That evening, we held another screening at UTEC in Lima (photos 13–14). At 5 a.m. on November 5, we flew to Arequipa for an afternoon screening of Canary at Universidad San Pablo (photos 15–16), then returned to Lima that evening so I could catch my November 6 flight back to the United States. It was an extremely busy but highly productive trip, capped by the endorsement of the Quelccaya National Park proposal from every university that hosted a Canary screening.

The Quelccaya Ice Cap is the world's largest tropical glacier and one of Peru's most precious natural treasures. Its preservation safeguards a unique component of the global cryosphere and a powerful symbol of Peru's natural heritage. Ice cores from Quelccaya contain an approximately 1,800-year record of past climate, providing critical insight into how the tropical Andes—and the communities that depend on them—are being transformed by a warming world.