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It is called the Roof of Africa. Rising 19,340 feet nearly 4 miles into the sky, Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest point on the entire African continent.
Located in northeastern Tanzania in east Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro is about equal distant from Cairo to the north and Cape Town to the south, around 220 miles south of the equator. The majestic snow-capped peaks of Kilimanjaro have long captured the world's imagination. Thousands have traveled to Tanzania to climb the mountain, or to view its famous glacier-covered peak. One such visitor, the American author Earnest Hemingway, even wrote a story about it. In The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Hemingway described the mountain's ice fields as widest all over the world, great, high and unbelievably white in the sun.
As spectacular as it is to see, the ice on top of Mount Kilimanjaro serves a much more important purpose. Formed more than 11, 000 years ago, the glaciers are a vital source of drinking and farming water for those who live in the surrounding areas. But for the last century the snows have been disappearing. Kilimanjaro’s glaciers have shrunk by more than 80% since 1912. This can be seen in pictures that the NASA satellite Landsat has been taking of the mountain's ice cap for more than a decade. This is how it looked in 1993. And this is how it looked just 7 years later in 2000.
除了宏偉壯觀之外，乞力馬扎羅山封頂的冰雪有更為重要的意義。這些冰川形成于1.1萬多年前，是附近地區居民賴以引用和耕作的源頭之水。但過去一個世紀以來，這些冰川已經消失殆盡。乞力馬扎羅山的冰川自1912年以來已經縮減了80%多。這一點能從過去10多年來美國宇航局衛星“地球資源衛星”拍下的許多冰冠圖像中看出。這幅是1993年冰冠的樣子，而這幅是2000年的樣子，才過去了7年。
There are several theories as to why Mount Kilimanjaro’s snow is disappearing so quickly. For one thing, the mountain is located in a tropical region. For this reason, its glaciers are especially vulnerable to climate changes. One type of climate change is called global warming, which is causing a constant rise in the Earth’s temperature. Another possible reason that glaciers are melting is deforestation, which happens when trees are cut down in mass quantities. Trees keep the air cooler and add moisture to the atmosphere which helps create clouds and precipitation.
關于乞力馬扎羅山冰川消失如此之快的原因，有幾個說法。有人認為，乞力馬扎羅山位于熱帶地區。所以，其冰川極易受到氣候變化的影響。其中一種氣候變化就是全球變暖，這種變化引起地球氣溫持續升高。另一種說法認為，乞力馬扎羅山的冰川由于森林采伐，也就是大量砍伐樹木。樹木能讓空氣溫度更低，并增加大氣層濕度，從而有助于形成云朵并降雨。
Regardless of the causes, the snows of Kilimanjaro continue to melt. Experts predict that the mountain's glaciers could disappear completely by the year 2020. The loss of Kilimanjaro’s glaciers removes a source of water from the mountain’s surrounding area. In addition, it would probably decrease the amount of tourism and the revenue it generates to Tanzania. Finally, the disappearing snow in Africa serves as proof that the Earth, with its changing climate and warming trends, cannot always sustain its natural treasures.
不管真相是什么，乞力馬扎羅山的冰川一直在融化。有專家預測，其冰川在2020年的時候會徹底消失。乞力馬扎羅山的冰川一旦消失，附近地區的人就沒了水源。此外，還很有可能減少游客量以及坦桑尼亞的旅游業收入。而且非洲逐漸消失的冰雪也證明：如果地球一直發生氣候變化和全球變暖，那么就無法保持自然寶藏。
