A Glacial Warning

Glaciers in Uganda, East Africa are receding at an alarming rate due to global warming.

Dubbed 'the Mountains of the Moon', the Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda, East Africa are well-known for their breathtaking glaciers. It is rare to find snow and ice on the equator, so trekkers often follow rugged and steep routes and climb nearly 5000 metres above sea level, just to catch a glimpse of the icy landscape.

Photo courtesy of Richard Taylor Glacial melting: this photo shows the changes that have occurred in glaciers in the Rwenzori Mountains between 2003 and 2005.

But these glaciers may not be around for much longer. Due to global warming, they are shrinking much faster than expected. Dr. Richard Taylor, a geographer at University College London who monitors the Rwenzori glaciers, says that when he stood at the foot of Speke glacier in 2005 and measured it, he was shocked to discover that it could soon be gone. "We were judging the distance that it had retreated in ten years, and it was a lot. That's when we realised things were dramatic," he recalls. "We had tracked that it had moved 311 metres, so we're looking at around 30 metres a year."

Taylor and his colleagues have calculated that the Rwenzori glaciers are likely to disappear within two decades, since less than 1000 square metres of glacier ice currently remains. And Taylor thinks that the damage to the glaciers is already too advanced to halt. "Even if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases tomorrow, we'd still have a lag-time of increasing air temperature over the next few decades," he explains. "I don't think that there is any real hope that we can ever do anything more for these glaciers, but we now need to recognise that we're changing the climate."