My name is Eric and this is my first attempt at writing a blog entry. To be completely honest before starting this blog I thought it would be dull and just plain time consuming. In the beginning I was having a really hard time finding an environmental issue that I could be passionate about, something that would interest me to write about. While thinking about one of my previous trips to Tibet I remembered meeting a couple that talked about how they went to the first base camp of Everest and how amazingly beautiful it was but they were shocked at the amount of garbage that there was. After researching into it some more I found it not to be an understatement in the least, Everest has come to be called the "worlds highest dump" by sky magazine. Due to the ongoing popularity of adventure tourism and the calling to be able to say you have been to the highest point on this earth there have been more then 4000 people that have scaled the peak since 1953 first ascent by Edmund Hillary. It has come to a point that they even made a movie about it.
They have taken measures so that when you apply for your Visa in Nepal to scale Everest you have to pay into keeping base camp clean and if the authorities are not content with the job they keep your environmental bond. But the real issue is not at base camp it is at the highest camp sitting at 8000 meters, where there have been not only discarded tents, food wrappers, general toiletries, oxygen tanks but there have been many human bodies found. The new issue with "global warming" is melting some of the glaciers on which previously deceased and frozen expeditioners have thawed and are decaying and are melting into the rivers which is a water source for a vast population of Nepal and into India. Upon hearing of this in 2010 many expedition groups pledged to help clean the mountain and sought out sponsors to fund their expedition to clean the mountain. But in many cases it has been said that once the expedition group is nearing the peak they do more harm then good leaving there own oxygen tanks and mess behind. In 2010 the Nepalis Government sent out an expedition of 20 Sherpas to go clean above the 8000 meter point. They collected in total roughly up to 5 tons of garbage shown here in this image.
They have taken measures so that when you apply for your Visa in Nepal to scale Everest you have to pay into keeping base camp clean and if the authorities are not content with the job they keep your environmental bond. But the real issue is not at base camp it is at the highest camp sitting at 8000 meters, where there have been not only discarded tents, food wrappers, general toiletries, oxygen tanks but there have been many human bodies found. The new issue with "global warming" is melting some of the glaciers on which previously deceased and frozen expeditioners have thawed and are decaying and are melting into the rivers which is a water source for a vast population of Nepal and into India. Upon hearing of this in 2010 many expedition groups pledged to help clean the mountain and sought out sponsors to fund their expedition to clean the mountain. But in many cases it has been said that once the expedition group is nearing the peak they do more harm then good leaving there own oxygen tanks and mess behind. In 2010 the Nepalis Government sent out an expedition of 20 Sherpas to go clean above the 8000 meter point. They collected in total roughly up to 5 tons of garbage shown here in this image.
(Image taken off Google, "Everest clean up"
This is shocking to know that not only are we going into their country to climb their mountain and leaving our garbage behind but it is much more then just a mountain for them. For many Buddhists and Nepalis Everest is not just the highest mountain in the world but it's something spiritual and sacred. It would be the same affect if someone went to Paris to visit the Notre-Dame or any big cathedral and left weeks worth of garbage inside. Either we have to find new solutions on extra taxes for garbage or limit the amount of people that can climb the mountain in one year, for no Sherpa should have to risk his life to clean up our mess.
