In Peru, the disappearance of Chalcataya, a most important glacier, was a call for action. Then a huge chunk of Hualcan, another mountain glacier in Peru, broke up causing a lakeside tsunami.

These events led to a competition for "100 Ideas to Save the Planet." Out of 1700 entries, inventor Eduardo Gold was one of 26 winners of the World Bank-sponsored contest. Golds idea was to simply paint the mountains white, thus keeping their surface temperature down and allowing new ice to form and hopefully stay.

The paint is nontoxic. It is made from a combination of egg whites, lime, and water and it works by increasing the reflectivity of the mountain, preventing the normally dark rocks from absorbing the sun's heat.

Peru is home to 70 percent of the world's tropical glaciers, and global warming has hit them hard - nearly one-fourth of Peru's glaciers have melted in the last 30 years, threatening the continued livelihood of millions of Peruvians who depend on them for fresh water.

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