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Research suggesting that the ice cap on Mount Kilimanjaro could disappear
within 15 years has been attacked by the Tanzanian government. Observations by
Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University at Columbus indicated that one-third of
the ice field atop the mountain has melted in the past 12 years. Loss of the ice
cap would hit the large tourist industry that surrounds Kilimanjaro. Tanzania’s
natural resources and tourism minister Zakia Meghji told the national parliament
recently that the predicted melting was exaggerated. But Thompson retorts: “All
the ice has to do is continue melting at its current rate.”