Document text
0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Home News Latest Stories 'Love will have the final word' Tuesday is Kiwanis International Day 10 things to know for Monday Getting a lift from climbing a tree Striking a balance Education Ashland schools expand chicken pox exclusion rules Students go behind the scenes at hospital Ashland robotics team aims to build a winner AHS ranked No. 7 by Niche College debt load balloons: What could, should be done? Environment The top five conservation success of 2014 Protestors want Keystone pipeline plans stopped New wandering wolf arrives in Southern Oregon Turning fire fuel threat into wood stove heat Ashland watershed trails would change under proposal Business Silvio Calabi: Ford Escape Still a Solid Player Ride & Drive: 2015 Cadillac Escalade Brammo bought by Polaris They have a plan Ashland coffee roasters win nationwide honors Politics and elections Chief Holderness retiring, wants to help find successor State News New wandering wolf arrives in Southern Oregon Police officer shoots armed driver near Reedsport Nation - World Obituaries Susan Lynne Schaffer Dolores M. Edwards Betty Jean Gee Death Notices Elizabeth Hope Garrett Shareable Looking back: Do you remember 2014’s biggest stories? In memoriam: 2014’s notable deaths Sports Latest Stories Seahawks see need for improvement Springfield takes advantage of Ashland letdown Leonard's strong return powers Spurs past Blazers Mariota wins Manning award Respect: sock it to him High school Springfield takes advantage of Ashland letdown A Grizz sweep Comets press past Grizzlies Raiders put on a show Graham sparks Grizzly rout Southern Oregon University Springfield takes advantage of Ashland letdown Mariota wins Manning award Heisman winner Mariota says he's going to the NFL Buckeyes won title behind line play, Elliott and Jones Sayre says character key to SOU's success Opinion Latest Stories Letters to the Editor, Jan. 19 Chris Honoré: The Lewis Glacier on Mount Kenya — an elegy Our View: King's other message Herb Rothschild Jr.: King's provocation Kent Bush: Capital punishment raises questions Editorial Our View: King's other message Our View: A matter of survival Other Views: Get GMO rules right Our View: No benefit from LNG pipeline Our View: Putting slash to work Letters Letters to the Editor, Jan. 19 Letters to the Editor, Jan. 16 Letters to the Editor, Jan. 14 Letters to the Editor, Jan. 5 Letters to the Editor, Dec. 31 Guest opinions Chris Honoré: The Lewis Glacier on Mount Kenya — an elegy Herb Rothschild Jr.: King's provocation Guest Opinion: Bikes, hikers/equestrians need separate watershed trails Guest Opinion: SOU biomass burner would be big mistake Guest Opinion: City hiring policy is fair, unbiased Revels Latest Stories Community blog: Community gathers for William Stafford celebration Thanks for the Memories Theatre presents 'Cardenio' Best Bets: Jan. 15-22 A look at the life and vision of Martin Luther King Jr. 'Spotlight' highlights Orbison's life, music Theater Roy Orbison tribute hits high note Insights into the gifts theater offers off the stage Theater is an act of co-creation Music Roy Orbison tribute hits high note Jeff Kloetzel at Belle Fiore The Farr Side: Top 10 album count-up for 2014 Visual Art Schneider winter exhibits on tap: 'Baker's Dozen' and 'New Works' First Friday kicks off a new year Movies Interview: Jennifer Aniston works through her character’s pain in ‘Cake’ Movie review: ‘Blackhat’ is a frustrating 404 error Movie review: ‘A Most Violent Year’ is a gritty look at oily dealings in ’80s New York Movie review: Clint Eastwood shines as director in ‘American Sniper’ 'Selma' struggle remains relevant today Food and Drink Food for Thought: Wintertime wining and dining Cruelest Month: Poetry Blog Lifestyle Latest Stories Episode 18: Boomers' anti-establishment meetings now at senior center It Is What It Is: How to tell the difference between tattling and telling Kitchen Call: Try roasting these veggies Silvio Calabi: Ford Escape Still a Solid Player Get A Life: Make your universe a happy place Aging Happens Inner Peace Column Inner Peace Blog Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » Obituaries Photos Videos Blogs Business NEWS NOW Chris Honoré: The Lewis Glacier on Mount Kenya — an elegy ... Our View: King's other message ... Herb Rothschild Jr.: King's provocation ... Chris Honoré: The Lewis Glacier on Mount Kenya — an elegy ... Our View: King's other message ... Herb Rothschild Jr.: King's provocation ... COMMENTARY Chris Honoré: The Lewis Glacier on Mount Kenya — an elegy Comment By Chris Honoré DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré Posted Jan. 19, 2015 @ 12:01 am By Chris Honoré Posted Jan. 19, 2015 @ 12:01 am » Social News Mount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second highest mountain in all of Africa. It’s a craggy, imposing spire that reaches some 17,000 feet skyward, its summit stone and ice. There are 11 glaciers that encircle the mountain like a cascading string of pearls. For thousands of years Mount Kenya’s equatorial peak was an icecap, not unlike that of Mount Fuji in Japan. But no longer. In a recent New York Times Magazine article, photographed by Simon Norfolk with text written by Jon Mooallem, the journalists chronicled their journey to Mount Kenya. Their purpose was to view one of the mountain’s glaciers, named Lewis. According to Mooallem, it is one of the “most thoroughly surveyed tropical glaciers in the world, its ice mass having been mapped periodically since 1934.” In 1979, scientists discovered, after an aerial survey, dramatic loss since a mapping four years earlier. Mooallem goes on to describe that in 1995 there was similar bad news and a decade later Lewis showed accelerating shrinkage. In 2010, scientists and surveyors discovered that Lewis had shrunk “by 23 percent in just the previous six years,” and a neighboring glacier, Gregory, once a vast stretch of snow and ice, no longer existed. But there is an embedded truth in the loss of Gregory and the incremental decline of Lewis: what has taken place (and is still continuing) occurred over multiple generations, hence the transformations are barely noticeable. In other words, the changes are all but invisible to those who have no other frame of reference than now. We are told that Lewis is retreating, but how can it seem like anything more significant than the fingers of fog so common in winter at sunrise, mist soon swept away in a swirl and lost among the trees. In order to dramatically demonstrate what has been lost over the decades, photographer Norfolk, using time-lapse photography and historical geologic maps of Lewis, and carrying a burning broom handle, walked the original parameters of the glacier. What he created with his camera was a contiguous stream of fire up the mountain (this was at an elevation of 16,000 feet) that demonstrated the distance between the original borders of the glacier and its now diminishing outline. The image is graphic and startling. “Standing next to the ice field,” Norfolk said, “was like standing next to the exhausted remains of something that was once glorious.” “Most of us,” writes Mooallem “have probably never felt so indicted, so directly, by melting ice. Glaciers can feel like far away, abstract things — even in places like my home, San Francisco, that rely on them for water. Our glaciers, we’re told, are disappearing freakishly fast, but fast for a glacier can still be too slow for the human imagination to seize on. They’re a lot like the environmental problems that way ... The challenge, right now, is to find a way to make the slow deterioration of the world’s beauty feel ... urgent and overpowering from afar.” And therein is the problem. We can know intellectually that the world is being exhausted, depleted — our overfished oceans are filling with plastic and cast-off effluents; species, small and large, to include botanicals, are lost to us forever; our rapacious use of the earth’s resources remains unchanged. But it is all happening so gradually that we cannot summon the urgency of now. It is a bridge too far. As an aside, it is estimated that within 30 years the glaciers of Mount Kenya will be gone. The reality is that these melting glaciers are the source of water for more than 2é million Kenyans. Ultimately, that water, emptying into two major rivers, accounts for 80 percent of Kenya’s electricity. Chris Honoré lives in Ashland. By Chris Honoré DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré Posted Jan. 19, 2015 @ 12:01 am » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with DailyTidings.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Alerts Email alerts RSS feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Your privacy is important, read our privacy policy. © Copyright 2015 Local Media Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Local Media Group Publications Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted. DailyTidings.com | P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501