The last snows of Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro, literally the “mountain of snow” is a place where God was said to live, a provider of water for the local Chagga people and, today, the single largest source of tourist dollars in a struggling economy.

But the ice is melting and once it is gone there is a real concern that the 20,000 tourists who come to climb the mountain each year will be gone too. After all a mountain without snow in Africa is just another mountain.

The exact reasons for the glacier’s shrinkage are not known but deforestation and global warming are commonly blamed.
I start pulling off my hat, balaclava and gloves – the early signs of hypothermia. Emanuel and a porter pull me through the snow until I finally reach Uhuru summit.

Below me the reduction in the ice is clear to see. The glacier which once filled the crater stands out sharply against the black dust of the mountain, now a fraction of its former glory.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4362561.stm