Ernest Hemingway’s Description of the Mountaintop in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and Climate Change Research

The ice field of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak of Africa, was made famous by Ernest Hemingway in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” Scientific evidence shows that the snows of Kilimanjaro are vanishing. When first reports of this meltdown linked it to global warming, natural scientists evoked the Hemingway story to reinforce the alarming message of the human-made climate change. Recent scientific observations suggest, however, that the disappearance of Kilimanjaro ice originates from hydroclimatic change rather than direct effects of global warming. Mount Kilimanjaro has thus become an icon of controversial climate change debates.