This article originally appeared on VICE India.
Climate change induced by humans is worsening each day. It’s devastating effects has gone far and has now reached the Himalayas, where Mt. Everest is located.
Aside from being the highest mountain on Earth, Mt. Everest is also branded as ‘the world’s highest garbage dump’. This does not only refer to the trash left behind by mountaineers but the frozen corpses of mountaineers itself that weren’t able to survive due, for example, to the mountain’s hostile terrain.
According to a study, the glaciers in the Himalayas are melting rapidly and threatened to shrink to nearly a third of their size, all because of climate change.
Fatalities in Mt. Everest has become common but the worsening of climate change has made it more inevitable. Just the previous year, 16 people were killed because of an avalanche in Mt. Everest. This year, another 12 were killed due to a storm in the mountain’s peak.
All those corpses, some are there for years already, and tons of garbage, brought there by people for decades, are revealed and are still emerging. This fragile ecosystem of the Mt. Everest is seriously at risk.
Good thing, Ang Tshering Sherpa, a family that has been leading Everest expeditions for years, has involved themselves to cleaning operations for Mt. Everest since 1996. They had retrieved bodies and brought back tons of garbage from the mountain to the base camp of Nepal. This family has dedicated 20 percent of its profits from their business to annual clean-ups for Everest.
This year, the government of Nepal has released 383 climbing permits for the mountain. Monetising it was an interest for their country whose GDP is only 1/70 of the US. Thus, the greatest responsibility of cleaning and protecting the mountain lies on the Nepalese Government.
They have recently implemented rules such as the ban for the use of single-used plastics, and plans to restrict permits on climbing Mt. Everest. Clean-up operations were also launched by the government, partnering with other agencies. In 2014, the government created a rule that each trekking group shall deposit $4000 dollars upon ascent, and will be refunded if they return with 8 kilograms of garbage from the mountain.
Yet, no matter how many measures are implemented by the government and how many clean-up operations are headed by the Ang Tshering Sherpa, the future of Mt. Everest still lies on the awareness and accountability of every person who will set foot on the mountain. Education and sustained effort are still the most effective solution.
Source: https://www.vice.com
