No More Snows of Kilimanjaro Within the Decade
Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth (2006): 'Within the Decade There Will Be No More Snows of Kilimanjaro'
In the Oscar-winning documentary, Gore showed photos of Africa's highest peak losing its ice and gave it ten years. Kilimanjaro still had ice in 2022.
What was said
“Within the decade there will be no more snows of Kilimanjaro.”
— Al Gore (former US Vice President), in the documentary An Inconvenient Truth · said May 24, 2006 · due Within the decade (by 2016)
The ice did not vanish by 2016. PolitiFact reported in 2022 that the mountain's northern ice field remained, at about half a square kilometre.
The fine print
Gore cited his friend Lonnie Thompson, whose 2002 study said the ice fields were 'likely to disappear between 2015 and 2020' (see Kilimanjaro's Ice Gone Between 2015 and 2020). Gore's line was flat and ran on a shorter clock. The same passage says of Glacier National Park: 'Within 15 years this will be the park formerly known as Glacier.' PolitiFact notes that most of Kilimanjaro's ice is gone and that researchers point to reduced moisture as well as warming.
Sources
As of Oct 9, 2026
since it didn't happen
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