The Snows of Kilimanjaro

At the end of our last trip to Tanzania in 2012 the pilot of our BA flight to Heathrow diverted to give those on the port side of the 'plane a view of the Kibo summit of Kilimanjaro. It was both spectacular and depressing, for some of us remember what the snows of Kilimanjaro used to look like.

This picture is taken from the aptly named John Hunter's book 'African Hunter'- link to earlier post here, In those days the snow at times looked like the disembodied wings of a great angel, for the lower slopes seemed to merge into the background sky leaving the snow hanging above the game-filled plains.

The loss of the snow has been blamed on global warming but it isn't as simple as that. A recent article in New Scientist highlighted the consequences of chopping down and burning forest, be it that of the Amazon Basin or the lower slopes of Kilimanjaro, not because of the release of carbon dioxide but because trees transpire, pumping vast amounts of water into the lower atmosphere, which then falls downwind as rain or snow.

Kilimanjaro's snows have gone, and so have the great herds of game that John Hunter used to shoot. Like so many of my generation, sitting comfortably in the sunset of our years, I feel guilty about what has happened on our watch; and beg their forgiveness that we hand over to our children a much diminished inheritance.