BEIJING, June 12 (Xinhuanet) -- A researcher from the United States and another from Austria say using Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro to illustrate the effects of global warming is misleading.

    Philip Mote of the University of Washington and Georg Kaser of the University of Innsbruck say Kilimanjaro's ice has been melting away for more than a century, and most of that melt occurred before 1953. That's before the period where science begins to be conclusive about atmospheric warming in that region.

    And because Kilimanjaro is a tropical glacier, the processes contributing to ice melt are different than those on other mid-latitude glaciers located closer to the Earth's poles.

    Mid-latitude glaciers become warmed and melted by surrounding air in the summer, while the air around Kilimanjaro's 19,340-foot (6,447 m) peak (the tallest in Africa) is generally well below freezing.

    Ice melt on Kilimanjaro is the result of sublimation, which turns ice directly into water vapor at below-freezing temperatures.

    Mote and Kaser also cited decreased snowfall in the area as a cause of melt because bright, white snow reflects sunlight back into the atmosphere. Without new snow, sunlight gets absorbed and melts the ice, they write in an article in the July-August edition of American Scientist.

    The scientists say that other shrinking glaciers, such as the South Cascade Glacier in Washington, would be a better poster child for the plight of glaciers in a warming world. Government photographs taken from 1928 to 2000 have shown that the South Cascade Glacier lost half its mass in that time.

    "There are dozens, if not hundreds, of photos of mid-latitude glaciers you could show where there is absolutely no question that they are declining in response to the warming atmosphere," Mote said.

    (Agencies)