海明威笔下美景不再 乞力马扎罗的雪即将消失
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Kilimanjaro Snow Cap May Melt Soon
Lonnie G. Thompson of Ohio State University said measurements using ice corings and modern navigation satellites show that the oldest ice layers on the famed mountain were deposited during an extremely wet period starting about 11,700 years ago. The mountain is enshrined in literature, most notably Ernest Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and some ancient beliefs in Africa hold the mountain to be a sacred place. But a temperature rise in recent years is eroding the 150-foot-high blocks of ice that gave Kilimanjaro its distinctive white cap. "The ice will be gone by about 2020," said Thompson. The diminishing ice already has reduced the amount of water in some Tanzanian rivers and the government fears that when Kilimanjaro is bald of snow the tourists will stop coming. "Kilimanjaro is the number one foreign currency earner for the government of Tanzania," said Thompson. "It has its own international airport and some 20,000 tourists every year. The question is how many will come if there are no ice fields on the mountain." Africa was not alone in the global drought. Thompson said other records show that civilizations during this period collapsed in India, the Middle East and South America. Researchers put markers atop the ice field blocks in 1962 and Thompson said measurements using satellites show the summit of the ice has been lowered by about 56 feet in 40 years. The margin of the ice also has retreated more than six feet in the past two years. "That's more than two meter's worth of ice lost from a wall 164 feet (50 meters) high," said Thompson. "That's an enormous amount of ice."
乞力马扎罗山上的雪形成于大约11000多年前，不论在文坛上，还是在旅游观光业中，它都始终保持着一种独特的魅力。然而，科学家却告诉我们，在过去的一个世纪中，这座非洲最高山峰的"雪帽"已经"缩水"了80%，再过二十年，乞力马扎罗山上的雪景就要消失了。
俄亥俄州立大学的朗尼·汤普逊说，通过冰层取样和现代卫星定位系统的测量，研究人员发现这座名山上最古老的冰层是在约11700年前一段特别潮湿的时期形成的。 在文学史上，大名鼎鼎的海明威曾著有《乞力马扎罗的雪》一书，从而让人们对这片土地心存一份特殊的情结，再加上一些古老的非洲传说，更是令这座山显得神秘而令人向往。 但是近几年来，由于气温的不断上升，乞力马扎罗山顶上厚达150英尺的积雪正在一点一点溶化。
汤普逊预言说："所有的冰层将在2020年融化掉。"由于积雪大大减少，长久以来依靠这座山积雪溶化供给的坦桑尼亚境内，一些河流的水量已经开始减少。当地政府担心，当"雪帽"被摘掉，当地的旅游业就会遭遇灭顶之灾。
汤普逊还说："乞力马扎罗的旅游资源是坦桑尼亚政府最主要的外汇来源。当地建有国际机场，每年约有2万游客慕名而至。如今的问题是，如果没有了山顶积雪，恐怕就没人会去了。"
在全世界，并不只有非洲遭受了这样的一种干旱枯竭。汤普逊说统计表明，同期的文明在印度、中东和南美洲地区都出现了衰退现象。 汤普逊说，1962年研究者在冰层上做了标志，现在发现，山顶的积雪厚度在40年中下降了56英尺。仅仅两年时间，冰层的边缘就"缩水"了至少6英尺。 他说："这绝不是一面50米（164英尺）高的冰墙降低2米那么简单，这个数字意味着大量的冰雪已经消失了。" |
The snow cap of Mount Kilimanjaro, famed in literature and beloved by tourists, first formed some 11,000 years ago, but will be gone in two decades, according to researchers who say the ice fields on Africa's highest mountain shrank by 80 percent in the past century.
