Sign of global warming-Everest Glacier Melting

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http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-10-19.asp#anchor2

 

Everest Glacier Melting, UN Climbers Find

 

GENEVA, Switzerland, June 10, 2002 (ENS) - The glacier

from where Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay set

out to conquer Mount Everest nearly 50 years ago, has

retreated up the mountain five kilometres (three

miles), an expert team of climbers has found.

The exploratory expedition to document the effects of

global warming was backed by the United Nations

Environment Programme (UNEP) as part of the UN

International Year of Mountains.

 

Expedition leader Roger Payne, sports and development

director at the International Mountaineering and

Climbing Federation (UIAA), said, " It is clear that

global warming is emerging as one, if not the, biggest

threat to mountain areas. The evidence of climate

change was all around us, from huge scars gouged in

the landscapes by sudden, glacial floods to the lakes

swollen by melting glaciers. But it is the

observations of some of the people we met, many of

whom have lived in the area all their lives, that

really hit home. "

 

The seven member team set out from Kathmandu on May 16

and returned June 1. They climbed on Island Peak,

which is 6,189 metres (20,305 feet) above sea level in

the Khumbu Region of Nepal. They visited the

Thyangboche Monastery and spoke with monks, mountain

experts and local residents.

 

Tashi Janghu Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountain

Association, told the team that there is a rising

degree of concern among local people over the impacts

of global warming. They worry that melting glaciers

would trigger floods sending huge quantities of water,

rubble and mud down the valley,

 

Expedition leader Ian MacNaught-Davis, president of

the UIAA and the host of a popular science series' on

British television, recounted his talk with Janghu.

" He told us that he had seen quite rapid and

significant changes over the past 20 years in the ice

fields and that these changes appeared to be

accelerating. He told us that Hillary and Tenzing

would now have to walk two hours to find the edge of

the glacier which was close to their original base

camp in 1953, which means that it has retreated by

between four and six kilometres. "

 

 

 

 

 

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