The climate change deniers they will have to explain why Nepal is spending millions of euros to move one of its economic pillars out of the glacier where it is located. We are talking about the Everest base camp, located in The Khumbu glacier a una altitud de 5.364 metros y lugar por el que más de 1.500 montañistas pasan cada año. Its current location is being destabilized by melting ice and is no longer safe for those who camp there.
A melted camp. As they conclude several recent studies from the University of Leeds that have alarmed the authorities, the glacier where the camp is located is disappearing over time, at a rate of 9.5 million cubic meters of water per year. Those who control the base explain that a stream in the middle of the base camp has been expanding and that more and more cracks are appearing on the surface of the glacier.
mountaineers too They talk in this BBC article about loud noises that are heard frequently at camp, caused by ice movement or falling rocks. All this makes camping more and more risky.
Plans to move it. This is a chore for Nepal, which benefits every year from the arrival of thousands of climbers determined to scale its mountains. Now the country intends to move the base camp off the Khumbu Glacier. Where? 400 meters below the current, in a place where there is no trace of ice throughout the year. While the Nepal tourism department has yet to finalize the move strategy, especially with affected local communities, all indications are that the project could take place before 2024.
The main problem is that a camp that is further down the mountain would further increase the hike from base camp to camp 1, the next one you meet on the ascent. And that can make mountaineers have to work even harder.
It’s not just climate change. Global warming is not the only factor contributing to this dire situation. In Magnet we have commented throughout several articles how the human footprint is wreaking havoc on the natural landscape. Desde colas de tres horas de montañistas para ascenderlo a montañas de basura y residuos. During the last climbing season alone, tourists and climbers left around 25 tons of rubbish. Also of the mess urine and feces which they deposit in the surroundings of the camp.
What is happening to the glaciers. It’s not just Everest. Other glaciers are melting, losing ice and making the climb more dangerous. Of the roughly 198,000 glaciers on the planet, more than a quarter are in the Himalayas, according to this Science article. And now they are all in danger from climate change. Many glaciers are melting and A new study suggests that those ending in lakes had lost 32% more ice mass per year than glaciers ending on land.
It’s a big deal, as many glacial lakes form behind unstable dams that can collapse and send those floods down valleys. It is what was seen in 1985 in Dig Tshoin eastern Nepal, when a dam broke and millions of cubic meters of water spilled into the village of Ghat, destroying everything in its path.
What we learn from icebergs. In the waters, the icebergs are also suffering the same fate. Recently, in Magnet we told how the largest iceberg on Earth, with 5,719 square kilometers, vanished. A colossal monster that was twice the size of Luxembourg when it broke away from the Larsen Ice Shelf (Antarctica) in 2017.
Researchers who tracked its journey via ESA satellites calculated that from the end of 2020 until it melted down in 2021, the A-68 released a total of 152 billion metric tons of freshwater. This is no less than around 150 times the amount of water used daily by all UK citizens. También el equivalente a 20 veces el agua en el lago Ness de Escocia, o 61 millones de piscinas olímpicas.
Image: Unspash