All photos and text by Sally Kneidel, PhD at sallykneidel.com
Ever read “Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway? Some of those famous Kilimanjaro glaciers have been around for at least 11,700 years, and survived a drought 4200 years ago that lasted 300 years. But pretty soon, those legendary snows and ice fields will be gone – another casualty of global climate change.
Ice receding and thinning
The ice masses of Kilimanjaro are both receding up the peak, and they’re thinning dramatically. Kilimanjaro’s Southern Ice Field, 21 meters thick in 2000, lost 5.1 meters between 2000 and 2007.
As the glaciers retreat and break into smaller pieces, the dark rocks become exposed and absorb more sunlight than the white ice, thus heating up more than the ice and accelerating the melting of the surrounding ice. At the documented rates of melting, Kilimanjaro’s ice fields could disappear by the year 2022, according to Thompson and his colleagues in their online article in the November 2 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the Andes too
The climatological phenomena occurring on Kilimanjaro are thought to be applicable to other tropical peaks, such as those in the Andes. Says Ted Pfeffer, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado in Boulder, these studies will help predict when other tropical glaciers will melt and disappear. Many of these tropical glaciers provide water for people downhill, by way of seasonal glacial melt that is replenished by winter snowfall.
Above, another Quechuan family of farmers and herders in the valley below Mt. Huascaran, the highest tropical peak in the world. Photo by Sally Kneidel, PhD
What will happen when glacial melt is no longer available to communities living on and below the world’s peaks? Lives will change, people will move…..who knows beyond that.
Copenhagen Diagnosis
Thompson’s recent publication was likely one of the studies that contributed to the Copenhagen Diagnosis. One of the conclusions of the Copenhagen Diagnosis, in its Executive Summary, is as follows:
“Acceleration of melting of ice-sheets, glaciers and ice-caps: A wide array of satellite and ice measurements now demonstrate beyond doubt that both the Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheets are losing mass at an increasing rate. Melting of glaciers and ice-caps in other parts of the world has also accelerated since 1990.”
We’ll see
So…stay tuned. Let’s see what the conclusions are from the climate summit in Copenhagen. Will we all be advised to give up animal products? That would be the easiest and fastest thing to do, since Worldwatch Institute concluded that 51% of annual worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions are from livestock. I’m waiting for President Obama to tell us what we’re going to do as a nation. If he doesn’t include the fact that we now eat more animal products per capita than any other country, I’m going to suspect that he’s not reading all the news.
What can you do now?
As individuals, we can work to slow the process by reducing our own greenhouse gas emissions. Residents of the United States have the highest per capita generation of GG in the world. We can reduce our output by
eating fewer animal products (see “Livestock and Climate Change” by Worldwatch Institute), by driving less, carpooling, driving fuel-efficient cars, choosing passive-solar homes, and in general burning fewer fossil fuels. Take the Environmental Footprint quiz and learn more how to reduce your own carbon footprint. We all have to participate, if we are to reduce global climate change during the short window of opportunity we have during the next few years.
For more practical suggestions about how to reduce your carbon footprint, see our book Going Green: A Wise Consumer’s Guide to a Shrinking Planet. The book offers strategies regarding diet, housing, transportation, clothing, and other consumer choices that we all make every day.
This post now a Google News Link and posted on www.basilandspice.com.
Sources
L.G. Thompson et al. “Glacier loss on Kilimanjaro continues unabated.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 11/2/2009.
Sid Perkins. “Mount Kilimanjaro could soon be bald: world renowned ice caps may disappear by the 2020s.” Science News. 12/5/2009.
Copenhagen Diagnosis, Executive Summary. 2009
Sally Kneidel, PhD, “Livestock responsible for 51% of annual worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions“.
Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang. “Livestock and Climate Change: What if the key factors in climate change are cows, pigs, and chickens?” Worldwatch 22(6):10-19. Nov/Dec 2009.
A few of my previous posts on climate change:
Livestock account for 51% of annual global climate change.
Copenhagen data: 10% of Florida underwater by the end of the century
One-tenth of Louisiana to be submerged by 2010
Irvine CA schools go solar; most comprehensive solar school plan in the U.S.
Most earth-friendly mass transit
Green tip #1: Annex the outdoors and save energy and materials
How to buy a used, fuel-efficient, and green car
North Carolina’s vital coastal breeding grounds vulnerable to rising seas
Key words:: melting ice caps Kilimanjaro rising sea levels climate change
