One More Down: The Glaciers of Mount Kilimanjaro

Today the best source of income for the poorest of world economies, Tanzania (Africa), may not be there tomorrow. The famed ice glaciers of Mount Kilimanjaro are disappearing at a more alarming rate than had been initially predicted. The problem is not just the global climate change towards rising temperatures but also shrinking forests due to massive deforestation. The crown of Africa is suffering today and its ecosystem is on a one way course to disaster, because humans have failed to solve the long standing environmental issues. It seems that the silent mount has borne its fair share of sorrows and is now just about to give up on us.

A glaciologist, Lonnie Thompson, from the Byrd Polar Research Center of the Ohio State University has released a grim report on the web on the 02 November along with his research colleagues. Their research compilation on the 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' reveals that the ice melting on Kilimanjaro has exponentially increased in the recent decades. The ice covered area on the mount have dropped at a percentage of 2.4 percent per year between 1989 and 2007, an unbelievable figure considering that it was 1.1 percent between 1953 and 1989. The problem does not stop with the receding ice on the mount as what makes the situation worse that even the remaining ice has thinned considerably. The researchers conclude their report by making a shocking estimate that at the current rate, mount Kilimanjaro will no longer be what it is today, by as soon as 2022.

Though the 7 year study specifically points at the rising global temperatures and the reduced snowfall on the mount as the culprits, deforestation is something many have clinically overlooked. Unless some concrete steps are taken to stop all the environmental problems (such as global warming) facing the world today, most of the good things will disappear from here, forever! But who will take the initiate? Who will start the change, when most of the global leaders are viewing it as just an item on the agenda, I wonder.

The people are still not taking this issue up seriously because the melting glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro make little difference to those that live around it. They do not depend on the melted water from this dormant volcano for their water needs in farming. Yet, one can only imagine all the probable outcomes that can come off this melting scenario. Doug Hardy, a senior research fellow in the Climate Systems Research Center at the University of Massachusetts claims "The shrinkage and ultimate disappearance of these glaciers will create tremendous ecological and social problems in the near future." These ominous words can be supplemented with information from Tanzania's economics. Kilimanjaro being a world tourist attraction, is a very big revenue generator for Tanzania. The Overseas Development Institute claims that about 35 to 40 thousand tourists visit the mount each year and spend about $50 million in the country. One can only imagine what will happen to Tanzania once its great protector, the Mount Kilimanjaro, is no more.