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Listen to the following excerpt from an interview with geologist Lonnie Thompson as he talks about the effects of climate change on glaciers. As you listen to the interview, fill in the blanks in the transcript below.

 

 

 

CURWOOD: This is Living on Earth. I'm Steve Curwood. The snows of Kilimanjaro are receding so that famous visitor Ernest Hemingway might not the icy African he wrote about just a few decades ago. As the effects of global climate change begin to be recognized all over the planet, tropical mountain glaciers are at unprecedented . Lonnie Thompson is a geology professor at Ohio State University. He's been mapping and the Mount Kilimanjaro ice field, as well as ice caps in Peru and Tibet. He joins us now. Welcome, Professor Thompson.

THOMPSON: Thank you.

CURWOOD: Now, you've been taking at Kilimanjaro for the past two . What specifically are you seeing?

THOMPSON: One of the things we did was to it, to have aerial photographs flown. And an interesting part of Kilimanjaro is, it has this long . And there are actually five maps, now, for the mountain. So we were able to compare the map we made from with that series of maps. And if you look at the first map, made in , there was 12.1 kilometers of ice on the mountain. And in our most map there's only 2.2 square kilometers of ice remaining. That's a of 82 percent of the of ice on the mountain since that first map was made.

CURWOOD: How fast has it disappeared in recent times?

THOMPSON: In 1989 there was 3.3 square kilometers of ice. So we've lost essentially percent of the ice since that last map was made in 1989.

CURWOOD: Now, you're also a particular glacier in the Peruvian Andes. How do you the name of that place?

THOMPSON: It's Quelccaya. It's a Quechuan Indian .

CURWOOD: What's the situation ?

THOMPSON: In the first measurement period, which was 1963 to '78, this ice cap was at 4.9 meters year. Now, it has accelerated in its rate of retreat as we've come in . And in the most recent period, 1998 to of 2000, it has to 155 meters per year. That's an increase of 32 times over the initial measurement period.

CURWOOD: What are the indications to you that what you're seeing aren't just part of the of glaciers that would ordinarily wax and wane over time?

THOMPSON: This is a very important ; that's correct. Glaciers do and . For a glacier like Quelccaya you find out that the retreat since the last period, the Little Ice Age, that that retreat has only been of the of one to three meters per year. The most recent period, 155 meters per year is larger than any of the previous rates of retreat that we can get a on.

CURWOOD: At the rate that the ice is on Mount Kilimanjaro, when will it be completely ?

THOMPSON: For Kilimanjaro, the ice will disappear 2015. If you do the calculations on this Quelccaya ice cap in Peru, its estimated , if the current rates of retreat continue, will some time 2010 and 2020. So about the same period of time.