Warning: Snows of Kilimanjaro, Mt. Kenya vanishing

POSTED: 2:40 p.m. EDT, October 12, 2006

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Africa's two highest mountains will lose their ice cover within 25 to 50 years, an environmental group said Thursday.

Ice will disappear from Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, and Mount Kenya, the second-highest, if deforestation and industrial pollution is not stopped, said Fredrick Njau of the Kenyan Green Belt Movement.

Kilimanjaro has already lost 82 percent of its ice cover over 80 years, said Njau. Mount Kenya, one of the few places near the equator with permanent glaciers, has lost 92 percent of its ice over the past 100 years.

Mount Kilimanjaro, which is in Tanzania, and Mount Kenya, the highest mountain in Kenya, are major attractions for mountaineers, hikers and other tourists.

"The two mountains will lose their ice mass in the coming 25 to 50 years if

deforestation and industrial pollution are not brought to an end," said Njau, who heads the organization's Mount Kenya Bio-Carbon Project.

He spoke weeks before a major climate summit in Nairobi.

Green Belt Movement, in collaboration with the French Agency for Development, plans to launch a $2 million (euro 1.6 million) project to plant 2 million trees in the coming 30 years over an area of 4,942 acres within the areas of Mount Kenya and the Kenyan range of mountains called the Aberdares.

Water supplies in jeopardy

Both mountains are important water catchment areas in Kenya, with many rivers originating from them. These rivers are major sources of water and powered generated by dams.

"Deforestation that has a direct link to climactic change has affected negatively on the glaciers on top of Mount Kenya," said Njau. "Millions who depend on the seven rivers that depend on Mount Kenya will be affected because some of the rivers are seasonal and may dry up."

"For more than 20 years, squatters cleared trees surrounding Mount Ke

nya [to make way] for farming," he said.

"We are trying to offset carbon in the atmosphere and the World Bank told us that they will buy our carbon," through its carbon credits program, Njau said.

Through the Mount Kenya and Aberdares tree planting project, the Green Belt Movement expects the trees will absorb about 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide before 2017, Njau said.

The World Bank will buy the carbon under the Bio-Carbon Fund th

at brings together private companies and governments.

Trade in carbon credits has been spurred by the requirements of the Kyoto protocol of the U.N. Framework Treaty on Climate Change. Under the carbon credits program, industrial countries obliged by treaty to cut their greenhouse-gas emissions can get credit for reductions in the poor countries.

1. It makes me so sad that the US has not had the balls to sign the Kyoto protocol. It makes me ashamed as an American biologist, that we, a powerful countr y that has the ability to greatly change the state of this planet with our influence, have avoided doing so.

2. It was INCREDIBLY disturbing to see what Kilimanjaro looked like only three years after I first saw it. The change was dramatic. Yes, a three-year drought did play into the appearance of a diminished ice cap, but as I looked at it, there was no doubt in my mind that the glacial ice was diminished as well. As soon as I could I pulled two of my professors aside and said "guys.....what is up with Kili?" They just shook their heads sadly and said "we are trying all we know to stop this Ah-lee-son, but things just move so slow." I hope that the fact that the truth about this dire situation is reaching beyond the science community (by being on CNN.com?!) maybe more people will be concerned/take global warming seriously, cause all that crap you always here about a butterfly flapping its wings in Peking and the Mississippi floods? yeah, in this case, it's TRUE. Everytime I bitch about riding the MBTA, I try to remember that I am reducing emissions. That's one car off the road. That might be an extra day that ice cap sticks around on top of Kili.

3. I am irked that this article talks about the rivers drying up but do esn't tell you the rest of the story. Yes, glacial melt is an important water source for farms and villages, but where I studied, Kilimanjaro water was being piped out of the rivers and boreholes it flowed to and being sent directly to Nairobi to feed the flower farms there. People had to illegally tap into the pipeline simply to survive a drought. Often when we went for a drive, we'd see people gathering water coming from an illegally tapped pipeline. In the water that had gathered around the leak, animals and people were bathing together. Not only was this highly unsanitary, but if people get caught tapping the line, the penalties are serious. So yes, the warming trend is leading to a shortage of water, but I would've ap preciated mention of the pipeline so we know that man has some hand in the shortage.

Below 2003 and 2006 Kilimanjaro pics for comparison:

2003, Kilimanjaro from Isompeti: 2006, Kilimanjaro from Amboseli:

This second picture is a bit hazy, but you get the idea: snow. then no snow. scary, yes?