Environmental campaigners includingChris Bonington, Reinhold
Messner and Stephen Venables are calling on UNESCO to place Everest
National Park (Sagarmatha National Park) on the World Heritage Danger
List.
The
melting of glaciers in the region has created huge lakes of meltwater
often held back only by barriers of unstable morraine. The danger is
that at some point many of these natural dams will give way creating
devestating floods. 'Both the beauty of this magnificent area and the
livelihoods of its inhabitants are threatened by global warming,'
says Bonington.
A petition due to be delivered to Unesco in Paris tomorrow,
Thursday, is aimed at drawing attention to the problem and by putting
Everest on the danger list, making UNESCO assess the glacial lakes in
Nepal and taking steps to stabilise the most dangerous of them.
The situation is echoed in the Peruvian Andes where the region
around Huaraz has been devestated repeatedly by alluvions caused by
the combination of earthquakes and unstable glacial lakes.
Prakash Sharma, Director of Pro Public (Friends of the Earth
Nepal) said: `Mount Everest is a powerful symbol of the natural
world, not just in Nepal. If this mountain is threatened by climate
change, then we know the situation is deadly serious. If we fail to
act, we are failing future generations and denying them the chance to
enjoy the beauty of mother earth.'
The effects on Nepal's trekking industry would be massive and
serious. Pemba Dorjee Sherpa, the fastest ever climber of Everest,
who has climbed the mountain four times said: `Last year when Edmund
Hillary came to Everest, he told me that so much snow had melted in
the fifty years since he first climbed Everest.
'In 1953 snow and ice had reached all the way to base camp, but
now it ends five miles above. Everest is losing its natural beauty.
If this continues, then tourists won't come any more. Our communities
rely on tourism. It's my livelihood, as a tour guide and climber, and
if we lose this, there will be nothing for our children.'
There's a BBC news report
on the story at news.bbc.co.uk in the South Asia section.
