Mount Everest, en.wikipedia.org |
The nature
of the pollution includes human corpses, human excrement, garbage leaking from
glaciers, abandoned equipment, and overcrowding. How crowded could it be? Mark
Jenkins described at 26,000 feet the dangerous inconvenience of more than 100
climbers moving slowly, forcing everybody else to move at the same pace.
The humans
who perished were left where they died; some were pushed by wind and ice by the
side of the trail and some wound up in crevasses. Mark said that the “mountain
is mobbed” by inexperienced climbers. “The two standard routes up Everest are
not only dangerously crowded but also disgustingly polluted.”
He bemoans
the days when in 1963 only six climbers made the arduous trek compared to 2012
when over 500 “mobbed the summit.” The National Geographic team reached the summit
on May 25 but was unable to stand due to overcrowding.
Climbing the
highest peak is not as glamorous as it used to be, he said. The club is no
longer rarified – there are almost 4,000 who successfully reached the peak,
some more than once. Guided climbers who pay $30,000-120,000 on expeditions to
reach the top have created mounds of human excrement and left behind discarded
equipment, other trash, and corpses.
Nepalese
Sherpas remove their own trash, leaving little footprint behind. They even pick
up some of the garbage left by climbers even though collection work is
difficult in sub-zero temperatures.
What kind of
micro-management do environmentalists propose in order to save this natural
wonder, the mammoth toy that tests the mettle for the few and moneyed?
-
Restrain
low budget outfitters by limiting the number of total permits per season and
the size of each team (perfect weather data causes crowds on the mountain, all
vying to reach the top during the same nice weather conditions)
-
Show
respect for the mountain (I would think, that would be hard to do when caught
in a storm and trying to survive)
-
Issue
ID scanner tags with every permit (QR code) that might save a climber’s life (Would
that reduce corpse pollution?)
I would
never understand why humans push themselves to test the limit of their survival
endurance in unforgiving environments, often paying with their lives, but it is
a remarkable accomplishment that few have attained and I am not trying to
minimize the extraordinary physical shape these men and women attain and the grueling
training and dedication involved.
Previous
pioneers have escalated peaks and treacherous territories trying to find new
lands, develop maps, rescue lost teams, or to find mines of gold, silver, and
other precious resources. They left behind discarded equipment, wagons, tools,
ships, tents, and cooking utensils.
I wonder if environmentalists
consider mountains polluted if they are covered with wildlife, their poop, and their
carcasses. Animals are killed off, die of natural causes, sometimes partially
or completely eaten; their remains and fecal matter decompose scattered on the
ground. Is that environmentally hazardous to the mountain?
Civilized
people love a clean environment and strive to keep it that way. At the end of
the day, is it about pollution really and “showing respect for the mountain,”
or is it about denying and controlling access to a natural wonder so that
future climbers with a big ego, plenty of cash, and a burning desire to reach
the peak, survive, often cheat death, and live to brag about it?
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