From National Geographic is this short and interesting look at Mount Kilimanjaro. Also called the rooftop of Africa, this mountain in eastern Tanzania is the highest African summit and provides greatly needed local drinking water and tourist income for Tanzanians. There are some startling photos taken from NASA only 7 years apart that demonstrate the massive shrinking of the glacier, adding to the nearly 80% disappearance of ice in the last 90 years. We didn't summit Kilimanjaro, but we did see it from the air as we traveled between Nairobi (Kenya) and Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean, and from the ground in Moshi. It is still a sight to be seen and I hope scientists are proven wrong and that ice remains on the mountain past 2020.

07/24/08 by visitEarth
Tags: Kilimanjaro, Africa, Tanzania, Mount Kilimanjaro, global warming, climate change, tourism