Everest ice forest melting due to global warming, says Greenpeace - Guardian

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Everest ice forest melting due to global warming, says Greenpeace

Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Wednesday May 30, 2007
The Guardian

One of the world's most spectacular ice formations - the towering
serac forest near Mount Everest's base camp - is rapidly shrinking as
a result of global warming, Greenpeace said today.

Before and after photographs released by the environmental group
show how the past 40 years of climate change are transforming the
Himalayan landscape as ancient glaciers melt and retreat higher up
the slopes.

-snip-

"The demise of the ice towers is the most significant sign of global
warming in the Himalayas," said Li Yan, a climate change campaigner
who was on one of Greenpeace's two recent expeditions to the
region. "But this is just one example of what is happening right across
the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. All the glaciers are depleting, threatening
the livelihoods of millions of people."

The implications are enormous. The plateau is referred to as the
world's third pole because it contains the biggest fields of ice
outside of the Arctic and Antarctic. Its glaciers are the source of
Asia's biggest rivers - Yangtze, Yellow, Indus and Ganges - which
provide water for more than a quarter of the planet's population.

-snip-

Read more: http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2091111,00.html

[kestrel91316]

1. Someday the Khumbu Icefall will be history, and Everest will be an

easy walk-up with no snow/ice equipment needed.

[hunter]

2. Well, if you don't mind kicking aside all the starving beggars...

Yikes. This is where the water comes from. No water, no food.

[kestrel91316]

3. There aren't any beggars, starving or otherwise, at Everest Basecamp.

[hunter]

4. Not yet, maybe.

If you can walk, so can they. Or is it some kind of gated community like a Mexican resort?

I've never been to Asia.

But after a fair amount of traveling, I've developed a Buckaroo Bonzai sensibility about these things:

Hey, hey, hey. Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

I can walk across town and be in a whole 'nother world.

Someday I'm really gonna get really brave and step into the Assembly of God church near my house. That place is further away in my own internal geography than Everest Base Camp.

[kestrel91316]

5. Everest base camp is pretty rugged territory. Nobody LIVES there, lol:

http://www.google.com/search?q=everest+base+camp&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

[NMDemDist2]

6. people will follow the water

they'll have to

[kestrel91316]

7. People cannot live long-term at 17,500 ft.

[LSK]

8. here is the image