CLIMATE CHANGE
We anticipate that this message from the melting slopes of Everest will become a long thread in months to come as we document more evidence of the planetary effects of global warming.
SONS OF HILLARY AND TENZING SPEAK OUT ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE: "BELIEVE US, IT'S A REALITY."
By Cahal Milmo and Sam Relph, July 6, 2007 (THE INDEPENDENT, UK)
Fifty-four years after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to climb Everest, their sons have said the mountain is now so ravaged by climate change that they would no longer recognise it.
Peter Hillary and Jamling Tenzing yesterday issued a timely warning that global warming is rapidly changing the face of the world's highest mountain and threatening the survival of billions of people who rely on its glaciers for drinking water.
The base camp where Sir Edmund and Norgay began their ascent is 40 metres lower than it was in 1953. The glacier on which it stands, and those around it, are melting at such a rate that scientists believe the mountain, whose Nepalese name, Qomolangma, means Mother of the World, could be barren rock by 2050.
Up to 40,000 Sherpas who live at the base of the Himalayas face devastation if vast new lakes formed by the melted ice burst and send a torrent of millions of tons of water down the slopes.
Mr Hillary, who has himself twice reached Everest's summit, said: "Climate change is happening. This is a fact. Base camp used to sit at 5,320 metres. This year it was at 5,280 metres because the ice is melting from the top and side. Base camp is sinking each year. For Sherpas living on Mount Everest this is something they can see every day but they can't do anything about it on their own." Read more at:
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2739751.ece
BRITISH TOURISTS IN ARCTIC RESCUED AFTER ICE FROM MELTING GLACIER HITS THEIR BOAT
By Jonathan Brown, August 10, 2007 (The independent, UK)
Seventeen British tourists were injured when ice from a melting glacier smashed on to the deck of their luxury Arctic sightseeing boat.
Three holidaymakers were airlifted to hospital with injuries including broken arms, legs and fractured ribs after the accident which happened on Wednesday off the Svalbard islands 300 miles north of Norway. Two of the Britons, who were taken to the Norwegian mainland, had injuries that were described as serious but not life threatening. One is understood to have suffered a head injury after the boat was tossed in the ice fall.
Read more at: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2851429.ece