Glacier loss on Kilimanjaro continues

Tuesday, 03 November 2009 09:03

The dramatic loss of Kilimanjaro's ice cover has attracted global attention. A new report published Monday November 1 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences fears that the Africa’s highest peak may be gone within 20 years. Since year 2000, the plateau's three remaining ice fields have shrunk by 26 percent.

Paleoclimatologists found that the ice sheet that capped Kilimanjaro in 2007 was 85 percent smaller than the one that covered its plateau in 1912. “If current climatological conditions are sustained, the ice fields atop Kilimanjaro and on its flanks will likely disappear within several decades”, the report said.

The three remaining ice fields on the plateau and the slopes are both shrinking laterally and rapidly thinning. A team led by Professor Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University said that the latest assessment of Kilimanjaro’s famous ice cap has confirmed that 85 per cent of the ice that covered the mountain in 1912 has been lost, and 26 per cent of the ice that was there in 2000 is now gone.

"The shrinkage and ultimate disappearance of these glaciers will create tremendous ecological and social problems in the near future," said Doug Hardy, senior research fellow in the Climate Systems Research Center at the University of Massachusetts, to CNN.

Also other tropical glaciers are going the same direction - in Africa, in the tropical Andes of South America and in New Guinea.

"The Kilimanjaro glaciers are indicators for a larger-scale process. We are losing all tropical glaciers in today’s world," said Thompson.

This could also lead to other consequences. Kilimanjaro is a tourist attraction and a crucial revenue generator for Tanzania, one of the world's poorest counties. A study published by the Overseas Development Institute in January estimated that 35,000 to 40,000 people visit Kilimanjaro every year, spending almost $50 million annually in the country.

Sources: PNAS, CNN