[prakruti] A Message From The Melting Slopes Of Everest

[Guest guest]

At 03:24 AM 7/6/07, you wrote:

 

Dear Colleaguyes,

 

Melting of the Everest. Chomolungma to Nepalese confirm

 

the impact of Climate warming.

 

Himalaya the largest mass of ice and snow are the water

resoerv0ir

for hte teming billion of India. India would have been a desert like

Thar Desert but much bigger if India was not cradled on the southern

 

slopes of the Himalaya.

 

See the conditions described by the sons of Edmond Hillary

and

Tensing Norgay who set their foot on the top of the highest mountain

 

of the world. Humans have to change the consumeristic

lifestyle

to save the Himalaya, to save India. Best wishes.

Kisan

Mehta

Priya Salvi

*******************************************

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Message From The Melting

Slopes Of Everest

 

By Cahal Milmo & Sam Relph

 

06 July 2007

The

Independent

 

Fifty-four years after Sir Edmund Hillary and

Tenzing Norgay became the first men to scale Everest, their sons have

said the mountain is now so ravaged by climate change that they would no

longer recognise it.

On the eve of the Live Earth concerts this weekend, Peter Hillary and

Jamling Tenzing yesterday issued a timely warning that global warming is

rapidly changing the face of the world's highest mountain and threatening

the survival of billions of people who rely on its glaciers for drinking

water.

The base camp where Sir Edmund and Norgay began their ascent is 40

metres lower than it was in 1953. The glacier on which it stands, and

those around it, are melting at such a rate that scientists believe the

mountain, whose Nepalese name, Qomolangma, means Mother of the World,

could be barren rock by 2050.

Up to 40,000 Sherpas who live at the base of the Himalayas face

devastation if vast new lakes formed by the melted ice burst and send a

torrent of millions of tons of water down the slopes.

Mr Hillary, who has himself twice reached Everest's summit, said:

" Climate change is happening. This is a fact. Base camp used to sit

at 5,320 metres. This year it was at 5,280 metres because the ice is

melting from the top and side. Base camp is sinking each year. For

Sherpas living on Mount Everest this is something they can see every day

but they can't do anything about it on their own. "

The warning came as a survey revealed that most Britons remain

unconvinced about the extent of climate change and that terrorism, crime,

graffiti and even dog mess are more pressing issues for the UK. The

Ipsos-Mori poll found that 56 per cent of people believe scientists are

still debating whether human activity is contributing to climate change.

In reality, there is virtual consensus that it is.

Just over half of people, 51 per cent, believe climate change will

have little or no effect and more than one-third admitted they were

taking no action to reduce their carbon emissions.

Speaking before the seven Live Earth concerts, which organisers hope

will be a catalyst for action on global warming, Jamling Tenzing, who has

also climbed Everest, said the mountain was serving as an early warning

of the extent to which it is already changing the planet.

The glacier where Sir Edmund and Norgay pitched their base camp

before eventually reaching the summit at 29,000ft on 29 May 1953 has

retreated three miles in the past 20 years. Scientists believe that all

glaciers in the Himalayas, which are between half a mile and more than

three miles in length, will be reduced to small patches of ice within 50

years if trends continue.

Mr Tenzing said: " The glaciers have receded a great deal since

my father's time. There are many things he wouldn't recognise today. The

glacier on which base camp sits has melted to such a degree that it is

now at a lower altitude. I think the whole face of the mountains is

changing. "

The glacial retreat presents a double peril for those who live in the

Himalayas and the populations of India and China, where the water flowing

from the mountains accounts for 40 per cent of the world's fresh

water.

The rapid increase in the rate of glaciers melting - from 42 metres a

year in the 40 years to 2001 to 74 metres a year in 2006 - has resulted

in the formation of huge lakes in the space of a few years.

A United Nations study of the 9,000 glacial lakes in the Himalayas

found that more than 200 are at risk of " outburst floods " ,

unleashing thousands of cubic metres of water per second into an area

where 40,000 people live. In 1985, Lake Dig Tsho in the Everest region

released 10 million cubic metres of water in three hours. It caused a

10-metre-high wall of water which swept away a power station, bridges,

farmland, houses, livestock and people up to 55 miles downstream.

Scientists estimate that the most dangerous lakes today are up to 20

times bigger. One of those, Imja Tsho, did not exist 50 years ago and

lies directly above the homes of 10,000 people.

The worst-case scenario according to Nepalese scientists is a cascade

effect whereby one overflowing lake empties into another, starting a

chain reaction which would kill thousands and wipe out agriculture for

generations.

Peter Hillary said: " I've seen the result of glacial lakes

bursting their banks and it's just catastrophic. It's like an atomic bomb

has gone off. Everywhere is rubble. The floods of the past are

unfortunately nothing compared with the size of what we are currently

threatened with. "

In the longer term, scientists believe the depletion of the glaciers

will drastically reduce the flow of water into the nine major rivers fed

by the Himalayan glaciers.

 

© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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