Snow Cap Vanishing Off Mt. Kilimanjaro
The snows of Kilimanjaro may soon be gone.
The African mountain's white peak - made famous by writer Ernest Hemingway - is rapidly melting, researchers report.
Some 85 percent of the ice that made up the mountaintop glaciers in 1912 was gone by 2007, researchers led by paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
And more than a quarter of the ice present in 2000 was gone by 2007.
If current conditions continue "the ice fields atop Kilimanjaro will not endure," the researchers said.
The Kilimanjaro glaciers are both shrinking, as the ice at their edges melts, and thinning, the researchers found.
Similar changes are being reported at Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori Mountains in Africa and at glaciers in South America and the Himalayas.
"The fact that so many glaciers throughout the tropics and subtropics are showing similar responses suggests an underlying common cause," Thompson said in a statement. "The increase of Earth's near surface temperatures, coupled with even greater increases in the mid- to upper-tropical troposphere, as documented in recent decades, would at least partially explain" the observations.
Changes in cloudiness and snowfall may also be involved, though they appear less important, according to the study.
On Kilimanjaro, the researchers said, the northern ice field thinned by 6.2 feet (1.9 meters) and the southern ice field by 16.7 feet (5.1 meters) between 2000 and 2007.
Researchers compared the current area covered by the glaciers with maps of the glaciers based on photographs taken in 1912 and 1953 and satellite images from 1976 and 1989.
The research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The African mountain's white peak - made famous by writer Ernest Hemingway - is rapidly melting, researchers report.
Some 85 percent of the ice that made up the mountaintop glaciers in 1912 was gone by 2007, researchers led by paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
And more than a quarter of the ice present in 2000 was gone by 2007.
If current conditions continue "the ice fields atop Kilimanjaro will not endure," the researchers said.
The Kilimanjaro glaciers are both shrinking, as the ice at their edges melts, and thinning, the researchers found.
Similar changes are being reported at Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori Mountains in Africa and at glaciers in South America and the Himalayas.
"The fact that so many glaciers throughout the tropics and subtropics are showing similar responses suggests an underlying common cause," Thompson said in a statement. "The increase of Earth's near surface temperatures, coupled with even greater increases in the mid- to upper-tropical troposphere, as documented in recent decades, would at least partially explain" the observations.
Changes in cloudiness and snowfall may also be involved, though they appear less important, according to the study.
On Kilimanjaro, the researchers said, the northern ice field thinned by 6.2 feet (1.9 meters) and the southern ice field by 16.7 feet (5.1 meters) between 2000 and 2007.
Researchers compared the current area covered by the glaciers with maps of the glaciers based on photographs taken in 1912 and 1953 and satellite images from 1976 and 1989.
The research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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"The melting of the Furtwangler Glacier at the summit of the Kilimanjaro began 125 years ago. More of the glacier had melted before Hemingway wrote The Snows of Kilimanjaro in 1936 than afterward. The daily average temperature at the summit NEVER rises above freezing, not then and not now. Daytime temps are about 5C, and nighttime temps are about -20C. The cause of the melting is known to not be temperature related"
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More anti-CBS rhetoric from the DENIALIST religion, without any proof despite this being an AP article from scientific researchers with proof of their own making your accusations look juvenile.
First off, where's your PROOF of the melting beginning 125 years ago?
Where's your PROOF that the majority of melting occurred before 1936?
Where's your PROOF that the average temperature of the summit never rises above freezing, despite your 5 degrees Celsius (40 degrees Fahrenheit) daytime temperature statement?
Where's your PROOF of the difference between summer and winter temps?
Where's your PROOF that the melting is not temperature related, despite saying that the daytime temperature was 5C or 40 degrees F?
Where's your PROOF that the sun's intensity and ultraviolet rays cannot melt the glacier at 15,000 feet ASL, even when the temperature is below freezing?
Where's your PROOF that the consensus is reduced snowfall when in May 2008, The Tanzanian Minister for Natural Resources, Ms Shamsa Mwangunga, said that there were indications that snow cover on the mountain was actually increasing?
Nah....you DENIALISTS continue to spew anti-science rhetoric and propaganda without one shred of PROOF, and just sound juvenile!
And more than a quarter of the ice present in 2000 was gone by 2007.
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This is not simply a receding of worldwide glaciers over tens of thousands of years or "CBS propaganda," but the disappearing of the LAST of the snow and ice that moderates our planet's climate. The warming is accelerating at unprecedented speed, and we're seeing changes now happening in just decades that took hundreds or thousands of times longer.
The DENIALIST religion lives on for constipated conservitards that have always been anti-science while worshipping the almighty American dollar! This should not be a political battle fought over ideology like the republican'ts have chosen, since more of the GOP footdragging to address global warming will only cost a lot more the longer it is delayed.
Read your history. Remember when Conservatives were against the automoble? They said it would put the black smith and carriage makers out of business. That is the last time they have been right about anything.
Mention war, and they get all excited. What away to live.
This provided time for flora and fauna to adapt and evolve to meet the changing conditions.
When you have change of such magnitude occurring in a geological blink of an eye, the situation is completely different. Species do not have the time to adapt.
So please, learn a little science before you form your ill-conceived opinions.
LOL
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You rabid DENIALISTS continue your attacks without any scientific knowledge or research, since this is an Associated Press story reporting findings by researchers led by paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
It just doesn't seem to matter to those DENIALISTS, what real scientists and researchers are finding in the 21st century, since they keep spewing the same anti-science propaganda without facts!
"On Kilimanjaro, the researchers said, the northern ice field thinned by 6.2 feet (1.9 meters) and the southern ice field by 16.7 feet (5.1 meters) between 2000 and 2007."
"Researchers compared the current area covered by the glaciers with maps of the glaciers based on photographs taken in 1912 and 1953 and satellite images from 1976 and 1989."
The melting of the Furtwangler Glacier at the summit of the Kilimanjaro began 125 years ago. More of the glacier had melted before Hemingway wrote The Snows of Kilimanjaro in 1936 than afterward. The daily average temperature at the summit NEVER rises above freezing, not then and not now. Daytime temps are about 5C, and nighttime temps are about -20C. The cause of the melting is known to not be temperature related; low snowfall is the cause of the declining glacier, and that's been happening since before CO2 started to increase. The cause is a long-term decline in precipitation made worse by regional deforestation.
CBS, you should know that the claim that Kilimanjaro's glaciers are melting because of global warming has been tried in court (High Court in London, 2007) and found to be without merit.
It is also distinctly NOT true that tropical glaciers in the Andes are melting from Global Warming, tropical Andes glaciers were largely ice-free over MOST of the past 10,000 years, the glaciers that are now melting were completely gone well before man emitted any CO2 except by breathing. They came back during recent periods of increased precipitation.
CBS, you really need to start fact-checking the propaganda coming from global warming alarmists. The quality of your reporting is just disgusting.