While watching this trailer (run time: 2:30), I was startled by a new image I hadn't yet seen. First, there is the set of photographs showing the massive retreat of the Upsala Glacier in Argentina (which I wrote about in late March; see What will they call Glacier National Park...). However, the trailer then showed the lack of snow on top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. I was actually a little incredulous that this was really the case until I found the following article on the internet (from NASA, no less).
Some scientists say Kilimanjaro’s peak may soon shine no more. According to Professor Lonnie Thompson, Ohio State University, Kilimanjaro’s ice fields could be gone by the year 2020. In his October 18, 2002, article in the journal Science, Thompson and his co-authors note that the ice on the summit, which formed more than 11,000 years ago, has dwindled by 82 percent over the past century. The authors note that the recent, dramatic decline in Kilimanjaro’s ice cap is particularly remarkable given its persistence through many previous shifts in climate, including a severe 300-year-long drought that impacted human populations living in the area about 4,000 years ago.
...
At least four surveys made since 1912 reveal there has been an ongoing decline in the extent of the ice.
As you can see below, the snow and ice on top of Kilimanjaro has melted significantly. The first photo was taken on February 17, 1993; the second on February 21, 2000, seven years and four days late (i.e., the same time of year, almost seven years to the day).
Is global warming an inconvenient truth to conservatives?
Absolutely!
No comments:
Post a Comment