Factors Of Mount Kilimanjaro

Mount Kilimanjaro is located in Tanzania which is in Eastern Africa (see figure 1) and is situated within 756 square kilometers of the Kilimanjaro National Park. It is the highest mountain in Africa and is the fourth highest mountain in the world, standing at 5,895m above sea level. Kilimanjaro is said to be a stratovolcano and consists of three volcanic cones, named Kibo (dormant volcano, last major eruption has been said to be 150,000 and 200,000 years ago (Wikipedia, 2015). Shira and Mawenzi are both extinct volcanoes. Mount Kilimanjaro is a famous summit that attracts many tourists and mountain climbing enthusiasts every year. Ice covers about 400 square kilometers down the elevation of 3,200 meters at its maximum.
Temperatures in the
Climate change is a phrase we hear of more and more every year, we hear that the earth is warming and as a result there are extreme and unpredictable weather phenomenons occuring around the globe, however what exactly is climate change? According to (WWF, n.d.) climate change is the shift in weather conditions over time. I must then question, what factors are causing this climate change.
The greenhouse effect- The greenhouse effect was first identified in the early 19th century (Wikipedia, 2015). This greenhouse effect is a natural way of trapping in a certain amount of the sun’s heat which contributes to keeping our earth warm enough to live on. However the high increase in these greenhouse gasses over the past few years is forming a ‘blanket’ over the earth which is trapping more heat in our atmosphere than it should thus causing the earth to retain too much heat from the incoming solar radiation, this process is known to us as ’The greenhouse effect’ (EPA, 2014). Evidence has shown that the earth’s temperature has significantly increased over the past 100 years, (Cook, 2010). The three main gasses that are released directly into the atmosphere by human activities are Carbon dioxide; Methane and nitrous
Climate change is a major issue in our world today. Everywhere we look, we can se changes in weather patterns and most importantly the increase in the melting of the worlds most important glaciers in the world. Mount Kilimanjaro is a popular example of climate change effecting the melting of its glaciers, but many researchers question this.
According to climate scientist at the University of Washington, Philip Mote, global warming is in fact the reason for every other glacier in the world melting, however Mount Kilimanjaro has shown evidence of its glaciers steadily receding for over a century now, and so climate change is not to blame, because these glaciers have been declining for years before climate change started having noteworthy effects on the world.
Glaciologist at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, Georg Kaser, states that temperatures on the 5,792m volcano, are always below freezing, therefore melting cannot occur and so a warmer atmosphere due to climate change cannot be blamed for the receding of the mountain’s ice.
Through a few articles I have red it seems that there are two main factors that are causing the ice loss on Mount Kilimanjaro simply, sublimation and lack of