Mount Everest

The large number of trekkers and climbers who visit Nepal and the Everest region contribute to the local economy but also cause serious environmental impact. Such impact includes the burning of wood for fuel, pollution in the form of human waste and trash, and abandoned climbing gear. Although some climbing gear is recycled by local residents either for their own use or for resale, it is estimated that more than 50 tons of plastic, glass, and metal were dumped between 1953 and the mid-1990s in what has been called “the world’s highest junkyard.” Up on the ice, where few local people go, the norm is to throw trash into the many crevasses, where it is ground up and consumed by the action of the ice. A few bits and pieces show up on the lower part of the glacier many years later as they are churned back to the surface, although organic matter is generally consumed or scavenged by local wildlife. At the high-elevation camps, used oxygen bottles are strewn everywhere.

Efforts have been made to reduce the negative environmental impact on Mount Everest. The Nepalese government has been using a portion of climbing fees to clean up the area. In 1976, with aid from Sir Edmund Hillary’s Himalayan Trust and the Nepalese government, the Sagarmatha National Park was established to preserve the remaining soil and forest around Mount Everest. By the mid-1990s the park comprised 1,240 sq km (480 sq mi). Trekking and climbing groups must bring their own fuel to the park (usually butane and kerosene), and the cutting of wood is now prohibited. Because the freedoms of Sherpas have been restricted by the park rules, they have not been sympathetic to the existence of the park. Additionally, the Sagarmatha Pollution Control, funded by the World Wildlife Fund and the Himalayan Trust, was established in 1991 to help preserve Everest’s environment. Climbing activity continues to increase, however, and the environmental future of the Mount Everest area remains uncertain.