25zero is a project that involves mountaineering, monitoring equatorial glacial melt and raising awareness of the impacts of climate change. In the run-up to the 27th UN climate conference in November 2022 in Egypt, the green mountaineering project will launch an expedition in June 2022 to Mount Kilimanjaro. Africa's highest peak is known for its summit ice cap, which has been shrinking rapidly since the beginning of the 20th century and is expected to disappear completely by 2040.
A Project 25zero expedition is planned for June 2022 on Mount Kilimanjaro in north-eastern Tanzania. The team led by British-Australian explorer Tim Jarvis is made up of his climbing partner Barry Gray, a film crew and a range of influencers and social media adventurers. They will climb the 5,895-metre summit of Africa’s highest peak to document the disappearance of its ice cap.
This is no ordinary mountaineering exercise, but rather a monitoring operation of Mount Kilimanjaro’s ice cap. 25zero is a project that documents and raises awareness about climate change through the melting of the world’s equatorial glaciers. It tells the important stories of the loss of the glaciers that are the source of life for local people,” explains Tim Jarvis.
Kilimanjaro’s ice cap shrank by 85% between 1912 and 2007
A report on the state of Africa’s climate published in October 2021 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reveals that the only three glaciers in Africa will have completely melted by 2040. These are Mount Kenya, Mount Rwenzori in Uganda and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. According to the study, Mount Kilimanjaro’s ice cover has decreased by 85% between 1912 and 2007. “This is a potential disaster for local farmers who depend on seasonal meltwater from this glacier to support their crops and livestock. This will have a major impact on the local economy and the local population,” says Tim Jarvis.
While much of the world’s public interest is focused on the melting ice at the Earth’s poles, relatively little attention is paid to glaciers in more unexpected places, such as the high altitude tropics.
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For this reason, the 25zero project aims to climb the 25 equatorial mountains that had a glacier at the time of the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992. The aim is to raise awareness of climate change on a global scale. And the Mount Kilimanjaro expedition comes about four months before the 27th UN Climate Change Conference in November 2022 in Egypt.
Boris Ngounou
