Posted on 11/17/2004 6:01:33 AM PST by wita
Melting Glaciers Said Threatening Everest
LONDON (AP) - Melting glaciers caused by climate change pose an urgent threat to Mount Everest's unique environment, activists said Wednesday, launching a campaign to protect the Himalayan mountain range and the world's highest peak.
Lakes have swollen from runoff, and unless urgent action is taken, many lakes could burst, threatening the lives of thousands of people and destroying the environment, said the campaigners - a collection of mountaineers, Nepalese climbers and the Friends of the Earth, an environmental lobbying organization.
The group will present a petition Thursday asking in Paris asking UNESCO, the United Nation's cultural agency, to place Nepal's Everest National Park on its World Heritage in Danger List.
Friends of the Earth international climate spokeswoman Catherine Pearce said it would be the first time UNESCO's World Heritage Committee had been asked to consider sites endangered by climate change.
The environmentalists also said climate change threatens the coral reefs in Belize and glaciers in Peru, and will submit petitions to include them on the endangered list.
More than 700 sites are currently on the U.N. Environmental, Scientific and Cultural Organization's endangered list. Inclusion of the Everest park would commit UNESCO to assessing the risk to the area and developing "corrective measures" in conjunction with the government of Nepal.
The climate change problems in Nepal, Belize and Peru were caused by greenhouse gas emissions from industrialized countries, the group said, adding that it will ask the World Heritage Committee to press countries around the world to reduce the emissions.
Peter Roderick, director of Climate Justice Program, a London-based environmental group, said damage to glaciers and coral reefs had served as warning signs of the impact of climate change.
"The World Heritage Committee must urgently investigate these sites and ensure that everything necessary is done to maintain their world heritage status, to keep people safe and to pass them on intact to future generations," Roderick said.
British mountaineer Chris Bonnington said the Everest National Park had some of the finest mountain scenery in the world.
"Both the beauty of this magnificent area and the livelihoods of its inhabitants are threatened by global warming," Bonnington said.
We all are dooooomed! Run for your lives.
The world changes. All the time. These nimrods want stasis where nothing changes, nothing is "threatened".
My position is always the same: Global Warming is occuring on Mars. Fix it there first, to see if we can do it without unforeseen consequences. After we figure out how to stabilize Mars, then we should try to change things on Earth.
This might be series. When do they expect the top to go uder water? I want to know because when there's 10 or 20 feet left showing, I want to go climb that sucker.
Exactly. Why fight it.
It is a shame we can't control the weather.
ROFLMAO!!! Mind if I join ya? That would be quite an achievement.
Maybe the UN and UNESCO and all the greenies, Euroweenies, and especially the French could fly up to the Sun and kind of stand in front of it so that they cast a really big shadow right on Everest.
That should help.
Lions and tigers and bears! Oh, my!
Apparently the sky is falling (again/still) according to the ecofreaks. I think I heard this as a kid's story when I was small and didn't believe it then either.
Count me in, but I'm thinking we'll have to tread water, or do you own stock in a big boat? I don't think it will ever get that far because the rainbow is suppose to remind us that water isn't the method used to end things in the "last days". It is Fire and the global warmers are getting nervous.
It will be called; "The Day After The Day After Tomorrow".
The Bureau consists of seven States Parties elected annually by the Committee : a Chairperson, five Vice-Chairpersons, and a Rapporteur.
On 30 June 2003, at its 27th session, the World Heritage Committee elected the following members of its Bureau:
The Bureau of the Committee co-ordinates the work of the Committee and fixes the dates, hours and order of business of meetings.
Chairperson: • Saint Lucia,
Ms Vera Lacoeuilhe, chaired the 27th session of the Committee (Paris, 30 June - 5 July 2003)
• China,
Mr Zhang Xinsheng, became the Chairperson at the conclusion of the 27th session and will chair the 28th session of the Committee (Suzhou, China, 28 June - 7 July 2004)Rapporteur: • South Africa,
Ms Louise GrahamVice-Chairpersons: • Argentina
• Nigeria
• Oman
• China
• Saint Lucia
• the United Kingdom
The election of the new Bureau will take place at the end of the 28th session of the World Heritage Committee (Suzhou, China, 28 June - 7 July 2004).
We are so conditioned to hearing tales of woe from the eco-nistas that a description of overflowing lakes to be a catastrophe doesn't even raise an eyebrow.
Yes...not to mention the new investment company launched yesterday in London by our old pal, Al Gore! Watch those
carbon intensities! Minimum amount of each investment: $3M!
This is just for the big money boys who can write off most
of their losses!
Cool! Less snow and ice, its easier to climb!
No, I figure the sherpas will be offering services as fishing guides as well as mountain climbing by then.
Wow, if melting Glaciers raise the oceans high enough to threaten Everest then we really do have a problem...
I think I will sink all my cash into the Boating Industry!
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