Africa highest mountain ranges for years have been losing their snow caped peaks, the World Meteorology Organization confirms this and UN seconded the report. The organization stated that by 2040 the glacier at the top of mountain Rwenzori would be melted due to severe climate change prevailing at the continent. This is so worrying to both the local and the international community which have benefited from the un-malting ice caped mountain.
Among the three summits that form Mt. Rwenzori, Mountain Stanley summit is the only summit lastly upended with glaciers and a wider portion of the summit is glanced at mislaying the ices too. The glacier ice are seen melting vertically at least 60 meters from 2012 to 2020 disposing deposits of the mountain.
The mountain is yet to lose its long-served legacy which nicknames it “The Mountain of the Moon”, as the moon reflections are reportedly offing and the cause is irreversible as climate change is as a result of a combination of activities.
However, the government of Uganda, the people in the region, Uganda, and the neighbors should have to worry about this. Though many climatic organizations are born to ensure limited chances of climate change but the rapid in change is seeming the much efforts to be useless.
The mountain Rwenzori is Africa’s 3rd highest peak and has erected to propose spectacular and Africa’s most challenging hiking experience. It’s only the 3 Africa’s highest mountain summits still holding the ice seal covers and the others tow are the Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya the 1st and 2nd highest peaks in Africa respectively. But the World Meteorology Organization reports that in the next two respective decades these treasures of east Africa would no longer boost of the ice glaciers.
Back to the local people residing at the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains known as the Bakonzo who generate the origin of the word Rwenzori mean “a place with snow”. The Bakonzo being the indignant residents at the Rwenzori are likely to face challenges of long dry seasons and severer famine which are likely to be facilitated by climate change.
The special surprise is that the equator crosses the Rwenzori Mountains, but still, it’s naturally caped with the ice glaciers due to its amplified altitude of over 5,109m. Before the ice used to cover the most known three summits of Mt. Speke, Baker, and Mt. Stanely but the commercial activities undertaken at the downstream of the mountain including deforestation, industrialization, settlement and the fire outbreak 0f 2012 causing a rise in the temperature with force the glaciers to melt off.
Mountain Rwenzori is located in the gradual western region bordering with Democratic Republic of Congo and for travelers in Congo after their adventure trek of Mount Nyiragongo can to, hike this sector of Rwenzori in Congo. Due its glacier it was named another UNESCO world heritage site in the country besides Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Kasubi Tombs. The glacier has been significant in research about the true source of the Nile as some research reports claim the world longest River Nile to start its long trek from the Rwenzori Mountains.
However, the glacier here are not so significant true source of the water to people around but it’s a very significant Tourism destination which has attracted a number of trekkers who have wished for something more challenging than any other on the Africa continent. Also, its tourism significance has transformed living standards of people from the surrounding communities who engage in the tourism activities directly and indirectly.
UNESCO terms Rwenzori as one of the alpine areas, considering the lousily formed terrain. The broader closet of the Rwenzori Mountain to form the Rwenzori National Park that was gazetted in 1991 as a National Park, it’s under management of Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). Rwenzori is a rarely visited parks in Uganda only due to limited promotional programs of the park yet it stands to be one of the stunning true African scenic destinations. Trekking one of the Rwenzori ranges goes through varying terrains and there is no that formulated way of trekking the mountain.
The Rwenzori Park is studied as one difficult park to access, and this was also campaigned by many other complicated situations including the uncontrollable annual flooding that splash absent the flora shield, as well the rebel activities which made a park in recent years a no-go zone as the park was closed from 1997 to 2003.
The climate change which has fueled the Rwenzori glaciers in the tropics is a witness of global warming according to Prof Taylor who was one of the leaders in measuring changes in the Rwenzori ice glaciers. And the change in the weather patterns is being observed all over the tropics which ensures the impossibilities of reversing the situation.
