If you’ve been putting the trip to the snow peaked Mt. Kilimanjaro Mountains on the back burner, I suggest you hurry and get there, that is if you would like to see the only glaciers that exist on the continent of Africa. According to the January 6, 2006, edition of USA Today, scientists predict that within ten to 15 years, the glaciers will have completely dissipated. They also believe that it began more than 150 years ago and that there isn’t too much that we can do to stop it with so little time left.
I have lived in Africa, but on the opposite coast of the mountains that lie on the coast of Tanzania and Kenya. However, I do know of one person that has actually climbed to the summit during a visit with one of his Peace Corps buddies serving in Africa. Based on his testimonial, it’s worth seeing. Although I am not a big fan of climbing, I would make it a top priority to go sometime in the near future especially since a part of one of the world’s natural wonders is losing one of the features that makes it so unique.
That’s not it though. Conversationalists also list other places that should be visited before they’re eventually changed permanently. Overdevelopment, climate change as well as habitat erosion are the reasons that the world’s natural and cultural wonders are threatened. Other areas mentioned include:
1. The Ancient Egyptian archaeological sites on the West bank of the Nile in Luxor. The perils are flash floods from climate change and new roads being built.
2. Hudson Bay, where Polar bears, the world’s largest predators, live. Global warming is causing the ice to melt, which plays, a major role in their survival in the Canadian Artic.
3. The Atlantic Coast, between Cape Fear NC and St. Johns River in north Florida, where communities of freed slaves from post Civil War era settled. Overdevelopment threatens that area.
4. 2,000 miles east of the Rocky Mountains is the final destination for tens of millions of monarch butterflies. Illegal logging creates a threat to their habitat in Michoacan, Mexico.
All five of these places have guided tours, but pretty soon they’re going to have to change the theme of the tours. Rather than describing what there is, they’ll begin each tour with “There used to be…”