Prometheus is a website where you can read the latest on scientific policies that are being considered in the US. I've read some really good, level headed debates and reports by the scientific community. It's an interesting site that allows you to bypass some of the hype.
I poked around while looking at the comments and found a visitor who had posted an analysis of what was making the snow melt on Mt. Mount Kilimanjaro:
Deforestation seems to be causing Mount Kilimanjaro’s shrinking glacier. Researchers think deforestation of the mountain’s foothills is the most likely culprit. Without the forests’ evapotranspiration of humidity into the air, previously moisture-laden winds blowing across those forests now blow drier. The summit, no longer replenished with water from those winds, started shrinking. Studies show the ice is evaporating through a process called sublimation. You can witness this effect at home, have you ever noticed that ice cubes left in your freezer tend to shrink with time?
I'm not sure what is causing the deforestation. It could be caused by climate change as pointed out by Tim Flanery in "Weather Makers". I think it must be hard for the scientific community to come to any real consensus on anything when they have to tip toe around the issue because of political pressures by the Bush administration and corporate funding which tries to influence their results. But I like to read all sides of the argument. We need to know what is true and not what the ruling elite what us to believe.
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