Everest

World record holder Legendary mountaineer Apa Sherpa witnessed water while in South Col route of Everest at an altitude of 8000 meters. Lakpa Dorje Sherpa memorizes quenching his thirst melting the ice even in Everest base camp some years before, but during this year’s expedition, he saw plenty of small lakes around the same spot. Dawa Steven Sherpa also says that there was no existence of Imja glacial lake until 1960, but it is now at highest risk of outburst. Peak climbers are frightful that soon the mountaineering will be changed into rock climbing because the snow line is growing up higher very fast.

Unfortunately, experiences of the used-to summiteers and the radical changes in Himalayas have shown Nepal to be in high risk of effect of climate change. The effect of climate change has already affected the Himalayas, but it could be more severe in the future too near. Although Himalayas are suffering most from the effect of climate change, these have never got the rightful attention of international community on climate change debates.

Most of us know that factors that aid to climate change and global warming are greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), level of which are raising more and more day by day.

Nepal’s role in CO2 generation is only 0025% of the total amount whereas the industrial and highly developed countries like USA and China produce 20% and 21% of CO2 respectively. Countries like Nepal are facing the side effects of poison the industrially developed countries are producing more than they themselves.

However, whoever is the faultier, the mistake has been done already and its result has started to affect the countries like ours maybe due to our geographical setting. Study has shown that the Himalayan region has got increase in temperature by 0.6% during the last decade and in the time frame of 100 years, it is estimated to raise the temperature by up to 5.5 Celsius.

Importance of Mountains
Most of us may not know that mountains cover one-fifth of the globe, and almost half of humanity depends on the mountain ecosystems directly or indirectly. The Hindu Kush Himalayan region is an essential part of the global ecosystem. This mountain region is rich in biological diversity and environmental resources and serves as a water source for the region, and the world. Nine Himalayan river systems flow along these Himalayan ranges and provide direct basis for livelihoods for over 150 million people. They support the being of over 1.3 billion people – a fifth of the world’s population. Nevertheless, this environment is now under constant threat as a result of environmental degradation and effect of climate change. These have aggravated environmental hazards such as landslides, floods, GLOFs, and droughts.

Carbon Emissions
Rich nations are in charge for most of the gases that are already heating the planet. Until 1990’s statistics, countries like USA and UK were ahead in carbon emissions but in the latest days, china has surmounted them. China refused to decrease its CO2 production in the past reasoning that it was its turn to develop.

USA, which is now world’s second CO2 producing countries even, turned to be most reluctant and refused to sign in the Kyoto Protocol. Had signed in the protocol the developed nations had to bring their production of greenhouse gases down by 5%.

But, ahead of the 15th UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen USA and China has already given their word to reduce their greenhouse gases fabrication by 40-45% until 2020. If pursued, this decision would be boon for the earth.

What is Greenhouse gas?
Greenhouse gases are gases in an atmosphere that absorb and emit radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The main greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere are water vapor, CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Greenhouse gases greatly affect the temperature of the Earth; without them, Earth’s surface would be on average about 33 °C, colder than at present. Human activities since the start of the industrial era around 1750 have increased the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere causing global warming and climate change.
All gases stay in the atmosphere for a certain length of time before they are removed by their sinks which is known as atmospheric lifetime of a gas. Sink is a method by which a gas can be removed from the atmosphere. CO2 has several sinks within the atmosphere, including trees and plants. Hence the process of deforestation removes an important sink for CO2. In addition to this, if the wood is then burnt as in the ‘slash and burn’ technique the CO2 is released through the burning process. Another sink for CO2 is the ocean. The ocean is both a source and a sink for CO2. The ocean acts as a big reservoir holding CO2 within its watery depths. A molecule of carbon may stay in the ocean for anything up to 200 years.
CO2 has an atmospheric lifetime of between 50 – 200 years. This means that CO2 will be present in the atmosphere for at least 50 years before it is absorbed by a sink or becomes part of another chemical reaction. Consequently, CO2 emitted into the atmosphere today could cause global warming for up to two centuries to come.
Before the Industrial Revolution, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere had barely changed over hundreds of years. This was because the amount of CO2 removed from the atmosphere by the CO2 sinks equaled the amount released to the atmosphere from the CO2 sources. Human activity has resulted in CO2 being released from sources faster than it can be absorbed by the sinks, so the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased.
The amount of CO2 in earth’s atmosphere has reached more than 3.64 trillion tons, which is the highest level in 800,000 years and is increasing continuously at the speed of 800 tons per second. The amount of greenhouse gases released by human activities – such as the burning of fossil fuels for energy and forest clearing – is called our “carbon footprint”.

As a whole, people are currently releasing far more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than ecosystems can immediately absorb. In other words, our carbon footprint is exceeding nature’s capability to deal with it. Atmospheric carbon is already at least 383 ppm, As a result, these gases are building up in the atmosphere, causing global temperatures to rise, consequently causing climate to change.

Continued emissions of greenhouse gases could see the average global temperature rise by more than 4°C by the end of this century. The impacts of such a rise are the biggest threat to nature and humanity in the 21st century.

“Hope” to come
At the latest days with USA president Barak Obama’s commitment to decrease their carbon emissions, environmentalists are hopeful of Cop-15 Conference. The Copenhagen Conference is viewed as humanity’s future. December 11 which will be marked and celebrated as “Mountain Day” in the cop-15 Conference has brought plenty of hope also to the Himalayan nation like ours.

A commitment to fairly significant cuts in carbon emissions is inevitable. Negotiators in Copenhagen will have to agree on how to fight the climate disaster.

Nepal Effort- Summiteers Summit to Save the Himalayas on the Mountain Day

Twenty-two Mountaineering Sherpas and renowned Everest summiteers have already started their campaign to adjoin celebrities, global audience to their march campaign to discuss and highlight the threats of Himalayas on the eve of International Mountain Day coinciding with the conference of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen which could be an excellent opportunity to draw the attention of the global community. Summiteers Summit to Save the Himalayas will bring in mountaineering celebrities form Nepal and around the world to Copenhagen to jointly call the attention of the international population to focus on the threat of climate change in the Himalayas. The program will be organized as an accompanying event of the Cop-15 Convention on Climate Change to celebrate the International Mountain Day on December 11, 2009. Mountaineering icons, marching in summit gears on the streets of Copenhagen, will be joined by many mountain lovers in issuing a declaration to save the Himalayas from the impacts of climate change.

The ‘Summiteers Summit to Save the Himalayas’ is an awareness-raising campaign to urge leaders of national governments, international agencies, and the public at large to take urgent action to save the Himalayas from the impact of global warming and thereby protecting the livelihoods and welfare of hundreds of millions of people of the earth. Further specific objectives of the marching campaign of December 11 via “Summiteers Summit to Save the Himalayas are:

• To draw the attention of the global community to identify the vital role of the Himalayan mountain region in regulating global climatic system.
• Emphasize the ecosystem of Himalayan mountains on which millions of people depend on.
• Make the global community identify that Himalayan Mountains are as vulnerable as other vulnerable regions of the world due to effects of climate change.
• Identify and take action to address the multiple problems and risks due to rapid melting of glaciers and the danger it poses to the lives and livelihoods of local communities.
• Give the mountain people and Himalayan environment a chance to survive the unfolding challenges of climate change.

The UN climate change conference opened Monday in an atmosphere of hope for a deal in Copenhagen. Words conveying hopes for concrete commitments from the world’s leaders have heard higher than ever just some days before Cop-15, so we can be hopeful that although Cop-15 is not everything to conclude, it is the starting point of “Hopenhagen.”

Bishnu Rijal, press advisor to PM Madhav Kumar Nepal said, “We’re going to host a ministerial level cabinet meeting on Friday, December 4 at Kala Patthar to draw the attention of the whole world to the effects of global warming on the Himalayas.”

“Our glaciers are melting and glacial lakes are multiplying and are on the verge of overflowing which will create a Himalayan tsunami. Even though Nepal does not contribute to global warming, it is highly vulnerable,” he said.

The ministers accompanied with government staffs are scheduled to reach Lukla on December 3rd. All of them will be flown to Kala Patthar on four helicopters for the meeting on December 4th. The meeting is said to be attended by over 70 people including prime minister, ministers, and journalists along with doctors for emergency services. Nepal’s Prime Minister, Madav Kumar Nepal will give a three minute long speech on the climate change and its effects.

“After the meeting a press conference will be held at Syanboche which is at an altitude of 52300, “Forest and Soil Conservation Minister Deepak Bohora informed.

“The cabinet meeting as well as the press conference after the meeting will be broadcasted live via Nepal Television. Other international Medias like CNN, BBC, Al Zazeera has shown interest for its live telecast. Even different foreign affairs executives have also shown interest to take part in this historic event,” Minister Bohora informed during the press conference held in Kathmandu on November 29th.

Officials said the 20-minute long meeting will take decision on climate change. The meeting, along with other issues to discuss has its agenda to declare the area located between the Everest and Langtang which is prosperous in biodiversity and is spread over 2,035 sq km as conversation area. The meeting will give back support for the Summiteers’ Summit to ‘Save the Himalaya Campaign’ scheduled for December 11 in Copenhagen.

Our motive is to draw the attention of global leaders to commit and work towards lowering the greenhouse gas emissions and also provide compensation mechanisms to vulnerable countries like us,” said Rijal.
“The Western countries should also think about defensive measures for country like ours where people live under the constant threat of climate change,” he said.

Climate change has hit the Himalayas in general and Nepal in particular. Around 1.3 billion people depend on the water that flows from the Himalayan glaciers, which are melting at a frightening rate, hostile to bring floods and later drought to some south Asian countries.
The UN Climate Change Conference aimed at setting targets to restrain greenhouse gases responsible for global warming will take place from December 7 to18 in Copenhagen of Denmark.

Tony Burdon, deputy head of DFID Nepal, has recently announced 50 million pounds aid to help Nepal fight against the adverse impacts of environmental problems caused by climate change and deforestation. “We do not think it is sufficient but it is a start,” Burdon told at a press meeting in Kathmandu.

Out of the total amount, 40 million pounds will be spent on defense of forests by helping local people to use sparingly a living. Climate Change Officer at DFID Nepal, Simon Lucas said, “We would like to ensure participation of maximum local people in our reforestation program. DFID claims that in the past it has contributed towards reforestation in Nepal by at least 10 percent via various programs.

The remaining amount of the fund will be spent on helping local people to enhance their flexibility power to the impacts of climate change which consists of improving emergency warning systems, guarding endangered people from natural disasters and supporting community water schemes.

DFID’s aid about 172 million pounds to Nepal over the next three years which is already broadcasted comes as a part of the international initiative. In response to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s appeal earlier this year for an international financial scheme worth $100 billion to help developing countries to fight climate change, the European Union (EU) issued the amount with increase in the figure to $135 billion.

Dressed in full scuba gear, President Mohamed Nasheed conducted the meeting which was 30 minutes long and was at a depth of 20 feet off the coast just north of Male. Among the 14-member cabinet, only 11 ministers took part in the under see meeting, as one of them were currently in Europe while two of them were not well enough to attend the meeting.
A horseshoe-shaped table was arranged on the seabed for the ministers, and the c communication during the meeting was via white boards and hand signals.

The Divers Association of Maldives had trained the ministers from over past two months and it said the ministers, felt confident about the extraordinary convention.

The co-ordinator of the event was Aminath Shauna who said that the ministers have signed their wetsuits, which would be auctioned on the protectthemaldives.com website to accumulate fund for coral reef protection in the atoll-chain.
In 2007, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on climate change warned that a rise in sea levels of seven to 24 inches by 2100 would be enough to make the country nearly uninhabitable. Therefore, Maldives, located southwest of Sri Lanka, has become a vocal campaigner in the battle to stop the progress of rising sea levels.

Lewis Gordon Pugh, who due to unique ability to withstand cold and raise his body temperature in anticipation of a swim intrigued many top sports scientists and earned him the nickname of ‘The Polar Bear,’ will attempt to swim 1km at an altitude of 5,300 metres in the freezing waters of a lake on the Mount Everest Region. The challenge is scheduled for April 2010. Pugh expects the swim will take approximately 20 minutes, and he will yet again swim in just a Speedo, cap and goggles.

Pugh has spent great deal of time previously confronting the elements in expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. He is also the only person who has completed a long-distance swim in each of the 5 oceans. This time also Mr. Pugh is going to dip in the lake of Mount Everest glacier to convey the message of global warming, climate change and its effects. Increasingly concerned about the effects of global warming on the Polar Regions, he is determined on his mission to raise further awareness ahead of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December. The declaration of his plans comes as Pugh leaves for New York to attend the Clinton Global Initiative where he will be speaking at the conference about his forthcoming challenge and the importance of agreeing a bold deal at Copenhagen.

As a result of global warming, temperatures in the Himalayas have risen by 1 degree Celsius. Glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, scientists predict they could disappear within 25 years. The glaciers on the Himalayas provide water to Asia’s nine largest rivers and 1.3 billion people.

Pugh said: “These glaciers are not just ice. They are a lifeline. They provide water to a fifth of the world’s population. It’s essential that politicians put aside their differences and agree a bold strategy to reduce climate change to below current levels when they meet in Copenhagen. There is not time for delay.”
Pugh, 39, environmentalist and swimmer, is no stranger to completing apparently unfeasible challenges where the odds are hoarded against him. He has dedicated his life to campaigning for the defense of the fragile environment.
He was the first man to swim at the Geographic North Pole in July 2007. The 1km swim took 18 minutes and 50 seconds in freezing temperatures of minus 1.8 Celsius, the coldest water a human has ever swum in.

Pugh further says about the new challenge, “The expedition to swim 1km in a lake on the slopes of Mount Everest is scheduled for April 2010 and I will be training incredibly hard over the winter for what will undoubtedly be the hardest swim of my life. There won’t be polar bears, but at 5,300 metres, I will meet the double challenge of swimming at extreme altitude and in freezing water. With no ship to retreat to after wards, warming up after 18 minutes in the frigid waters will be critical and far more difficult. I look forward to spending time in this staggeringly beautiful landscape with my expert team.”

Lewis’s challenge is sponsored by South Africa’s largest retailer Pick n Pay.