Snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro- an end?

Scientists believe that climatic change is the major cause of the loss of ice and if these conditions continue the mountain could be free from ice by the year 2022.

Not only is the mountain's ice decreasing but it is also thinning. However, the recent surface melting has not occurred over the last 11,700 years. Scientists also found that the total area of Kilimanjaro's ice fields had shrunk by nearly 85 percent between 1912 and 2007.

Thining ice due to climate change
Glaciologist Lonnie Thompson of Ohio University stated, "Of the ice cover present in 1912," Thompson and his colleagues write in the paper, "85% has disappeared and 26% of that present in 2000 is now gone."

Thompson has led the study for the journal-“Proceedings of the National Academy of Science”. In an earlier study Thompson backed a similar finding.. "In that 2002 report, we showed what we expected would happen," he said. "This paper showed that by 2007, the loss of ice is right on track."

For the new study he said, "Nearly equivalent ice volumes are now being lost to thinning and lateral shrinking.”

Similar findings
The examination of other tropical glaciers in South America, Asia and Oceania has revealed similar loss of glacial ice.

The study shows that rising temperatures play a part in the glacier’s drier and less cloudy conditions and are also contributing to sublimation and melting of the glaciers. Sublimation is the evaporation of ice into the atmosphere.

"This is a very thorough documentation of the changes in the Kilimanjaro glaciers," says Kevin Trenberth, head of the climate analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. He was not a part of the study however, he points out very firmly to the fact "that the glaciers are retreating and have continued to retreat since their last study".

It now seems that the "Snows of Kilimanjaro" by Ernest Hemingway will exist only as the title of his short story.