trash left on Mount Everest (source:unofficialnetworks.com)

Video surfacing online shows Mt.Everest in terrible state, littered with filth everywhere.

04/06/23 | 12:46 AM
✦ EcoWellness

Nusrat Ramish

Post Score: NA/5

Topic & Research

NA/5

Creativity & Uniqueness

NA/5

Timeliness & Social Impact

NA/5

Score available after assessment. Please check back later.

Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay have been immortalised as the first ascenders to the peak known to man as the world’s tallest. Now, that is a feat that goes as way back as 70 years in history. The Mount Everest today attracts as many as 800 people each year who attempt to climb the tallest peak.

This comes with repercussions and a video surfacing online attracting plenty of attention is highlighting exactly that. Commercialisation around the activity of climbing onto the natural summit of the earth has had a massive impact on people turnout and garbage generation for the site. A recent viral video is demonstrating just that. ( https://twitter.com/EverestToday/status/1662880927050240000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1662880927050240000%7Ctwgr%5E59aa138af5f4087512f8dea1bb9f745eb88ccec2%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fweather.com%2Fen-IN%2Findia%2Fnews%2Fnews%2F2023-05-31-shocking-video-shows-of-garbage-at-mount-everest-campsite video link)

A twitter handle with the name of Everest today that covers mountaineering over the Himalayas posted a video. The tweet contains the video and the written part says “Disheartening to see the accumulation of garbage at Camp IV on Mt #Everest (8848.86 m). It’s high time we address this issue with urgency and commitment. Let’s demand stricter regulations, enforcement of clean climbing practices, and effective waste management strategies. Video credit: Tenzi Sherpa.” The video so far has garnered 2.7m views.

Mountaineering the Everest comes with the tough challenges of difficulty of breathing and feelings of constant nausea. Climbers come well equipped in advance to make their task easier but once the feat is achieved properly discarding the articles seems a monumental burden. This reckless attitude gives birth to the problem in discussion. This discussion becomes all the more serious when we take into account a stat from the national geographic in reference to waste generation per individual on the site. It’s serious because the stat reveals to us that as much as 8 kg of garbage is what each person ends up dumping here. The garbage ranges from food containers, tents, empty oxygen tanks, etc. To make it worse, there are human excreta strewn about the place.

On the flip side, this discourse has brought people to ask the local authorities to take measures to eradicate this problem.