Climate change on Everest
By Marshall Thompson
I sat down yesterday and did an interview with Apa and Carina Raiha, who is attempting to be the first Finnish woman to climb Mount Everest. They are both ambassadors for the World Wildlife Fund’s Climate 4 Life campaign (http://www.climate4life.org) that is working to raise awareness about the effects of global warming on the Himalayas.
The final video of the interview will be available through Climate 4 Life soon. I had a few immediate thoughts that I wanted to point out.
First off, it occurred to me that Mount Everest is a much more salient subject for global warming than polar ice caps. For instance, I’ve never seen a polar ice cap or met anyone who depended on them. I know that’s not the whole point, but everything else is indirect at best.
I saw Van Jones, the erstwhile green jobs czar for the White House, speak once. It was inspiring. One paraphrased idea that has always stuck with me was: Only rich white people care about polar bears.
As a middle class white person, this struck a chord. For global climate change to make sense, the examples have to be concrete and have real results for people. For me Mount Everest does that.
First off, it’s the tallest point on the planet, not just in Nepal or Aisa – the entire planet. In that sense, we all have ownership of it. Everest is everyone’s mountain in the same way that we all share the sun and the moon.
Secondly, the effects of climate change have some measurable and immediate ramifications for the Sherpa people. When the glaciers up here melt faster, they form glacier lakes. When these lakes burst, it sends floods down the Khumbu destroying cities and lives.
Thirdly, billions of people depend on the water that comes directly from the Himalayas. That’s not joke. If the industrialized nations continue to spew carbon until the snowmelt on Everest is depleted then there will literally be billions of people in severe draught. Holy expletive deleted!
When you see the video you’ll see how passionate Apa is about the subject and it will all make sense. He’s been climbing Everest for over two decades. He remembers places where there was snow and ice everywhere and now there is only rock. He remembers having to melt snow at camp 2 for water. This is no longer necessary because there are pools of water readily available.
As Apa says in the forthcoming video: Now is the time to stop climate change!
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