乞力马扎罗――赤道最后雪.docVIP

乞力马扎罗――赤道最后雪一直以来,乞力马扎罗的雪顶引发世人无限遐想,连大文豪海明威也被它的魅力折服,写下了著名短篇小说《乞力马扎罗的雪》(The Snows of Kilimanjaro)。然而,赤道上独一无二的雪正在迅速消失。如果不是有图为证,你一定难以相信万年冰川在一百年间已所剩无几。专家预测,非洲第一高峰的雪很可能在2020年完全消失。气候问题的警钟再次敲响,假若不采取措施,地球气候将在不久的将来发生剧烈变化,从而引发更多自然灾害,直接威胁到人类和地球的生存。 It is called “the roof of Africa.” Rising 19,340 feet, nearly four 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 equidistant[等距的] from Cairo to the north and Cape Town to the south, around 220 miles south of the equator[赤道]. The majestic[庄严的] snow-capped peaks of Kilimanjaro have long captured the worlds imagination. Thousands have traveled to Tanzania to climb the mountain or to view its famous glacier-covered peak. One such visitor, the American author Ernest Hemingway, even wrote a story about it. In The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Hemingway described the mountain’s ice fields as “wide as all 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[至关重要的] source of drinking and farming water for those who live in the surrounding areas. But for the last century, the snows have been disappearing. Kilimanjaros glaciers have shrunk by more than 80% since 1912. There are several theories as to why Kilimanjaro’s snow is disappearing so quickly. For one thing, the mountain is located in a tropical region. For this reason, its glacier is especially vulnerable[易受伤害的] to climate changes. One type of climate change is called global warming, which is causing a constant[不断的] rise in the earths temperature. Another possible reason the glaciers are melting is deforestation[砍伐森林], which happens when trees are cut down in mass quantities. Trees keep the air cooler and add moisture[湿气] to the atmosphere, which helps create clouds and precipitation[降水]. Re