Posted on 03/04/2015 8:43:00 AM PST by Citizen Zed
Mount Everest has a feces problem.
Each year, hundreds of people attempt to climb the world's tallest mountain, spending weeks at four camps en route to adjust to the low levels of oxygen in the air. It's now estimated that they leave behind up to 26,500 pounds of excrement annually — and it's getting to the point where the pits of poop and urine surrounding these camps are becoming a serious environmental and health problem.
"It is a health hazard and the issue needs to be addressed," Dawa Steven Sherpa, an Everest expedition leader since 2008, told the AP Tuesday.
In a 2013 article in United Nations University's magazine , professor Pablo Figueroa put it this way: Given the lack of an efficient solid waste management system, for decades expedition members emptied their bowels wherever they could when they had the urge. As a result, human feces have accumulated in the snow, and streams of excrement are periodically regurgitated by the glaciers up in the mountain.
It might seem odd that feces from hundreds of people is befouling one of the world's most remote places. But it's actually part of a bigger problem that has been growing for some time.
Over the last few decades, the number of people attempting Everest each year has skyrocketed. More than 700 foreigners attempted the climb in 2013, joined by hundreds of Nepali sherpas.
As National Geographic notes , it's easier to climb Everest than ever: many of these people have no previous climbing experience, and simply pay tens or hundreds thousands of dollars to expedition operators to ensure they make it up the mountain.
These hundreds of climbers are funneled along two standard routes — so even though the mountain is enormous, their environmental impact is localized. At both the four camps and the routes in between them, these climbers leave behind piles of broken equipment, used-up oxygen canisters, other garbage...and, as noted, lots and lots of feces. One study found that one of two water sources at Gorakshep , a village at 16,942 feet, near Mount Everest's base camp, was contaminated from all the feces runoff.
In addition, there are an estimated 200 frozen corpses on Everest — the bodies of unfortunate souls who perished en route, and couldn't be carried back down by their teammates. Most climbers report stepping over or around a frozen corpse at some point during their climb.
The trash problem — especially the growing piles of empty oxygen canisters — was first noted decades ago.
Recalling his 1996 climb up Mount Everest in the book Into Thin Air, for instance, Jon Krakauer described how "the tents of Camp Four squatted on a patch of barren ground surrounded by more than a thousand discarded oxygen canisters."
During that era, several expedition companies instituted a program that paid sherpas for every empty canister they brought back down the mountain, which helped improve the situation. More recently, groups like the Eco Everest Expedition and Everest Summiteers Association began carrying out voluntary trash cleanups, collecting tons of trash annually.
Still, there are an estimated 10 tons of garbage left on Everest. Starting in 2014, the Nepali government began requiring all climbers to collect 17.6 pounds of trash from the mountain, but it's unclear how strictly this was enforced.
And poop is another problem entirely. Some climbers and sherpas carry it down in plastic bags, but right now, they're in the minority. Engineers have discussed building a biodigester that could process the feces at base camp, but at this point, it's just an idea.
Conservation groups have suggested cutting down on the number of climbing permits issued annually. But for Nepal, that might be difficult: sale of the $11,000 permits injects about $3 million into the Nepal economy annually, on top of indirect revenue spent on sherpa teams and other expedition expenditures.
LOL!! And I wondered why, in the greenswards of Ireland where sheep are always grazing, the grasses are shorn as close as a if a lawn mower had passed by, except for the clumps of grass every here and there. I guess they navigate their food safety and readiness by smell.
Patagonia®, named after a mountain range in Argentina and Chile.
There are some problems I just do not care enough about to comment on, or even make a joke over. As they say, this too shall pass.
Mix it with diesel fuel and burn it.
Bethselamin is a fabulously beautiful planet which attracts billions of tourists each year. Unsurprisingly, cumulative erosion is a serious concern of the local authorities.
Their solution is to calculate the net imbalance between the amount of matter eaten and the amount subsequently excreted by each visitor, and remove the weight difference through amputative surgery.
Thus it is vitally important to get a receipt after every trip to the lavatory while on the planet.
I thought it all runs downhill?
I was at Academy Sports a few days ago marveling at all the useless crap they sell for camping/hiking. If I took even half of that stuff I’d have to use a vehicle. I prefer to go light! Just me and what I can fit in/on my backpack!
Paging Algore — pick up the brown courtesy phone.
How about mandatory butt plugs for every climber. They are not allowed to remove the plugs until they get back down!
zip lines are the answer.
fill a net bag with trash or waste, hook it on a zip cable, and it’s at the bottom of the mountain in 2 minutes.
...by the clean end.
Clever, practical and do-able. Except they have to be able to bear the weight of corpses. That would require unsightly metal towers. Because if you instruct a yuppie liberal not to exceed a certain weight limit, they would sincerely believe it wouldn't apply to them. And they would sue.
poopdrones.com
What’s that old saying about not Sh!ting where you eat? lol
“Paging Algore — pick up the brown courtesy phone.
...by the clean end.”
Don’t help him!
I’ve always wanted to see a story that provides data than another mountain is bigger than Everest.
From the song “City of New Orleans”:
...
The conductor sings his song again,
The passengers will please refrain
...
That is ... refrain from using the toilets while the train is in the station. They dump directly on the tracks ...
fertilizer for growing food when Global Warming reaches the area
Man. This is my kind of news day. Poop.....monkeys.....Hillary Clinton. A trifecta of trash.
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