Everest

Everest is in danger of being affected by global warming. I wrote a biography of one of the victims of this mountain, a man called Andrew Irvine, a biography which was never published thanks in large part to Andrew Irvine's family, but this mountain still haunts me...

Climate change 'ruining' Everest
Campaigners demand urgent assessment of the risks to Everest

Environmentalists are calling for Mount Everest to be put on a UN danger list because of global warming.

Melting glaciers have swollen lakes and increased the risk of catastrophic flooding in the Himalayas, they say.

The move to save the world's highest peak is part of a new campaign to force reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.

The campaigners are arguing that countries are legally bound to protect World Heritage Sites from damage.

The group, including famous mountaineers and members of the UK-based group Friends of the Earth, will ask Unesco, the UN educational, scientific and cultural agency to put Nepal's Sagarmatha National Park on its danger list.

Unesco must shout out loudly and say we need greenhouse gas emission cuts - legally
Peter RoderickClimate Justice group It will also submit petitions for the Belize barrier reef and the Huascaran National Park in Peru to be included in the list.

"Mount Everest is a powerful symbol of the natural world not just in Nepal," the director of Friends of the Earth Nepal, Prakash Sharma, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

"If this mountain is threatened by climate change, then we know the situation is deadly serious," the director added.

The campaigners admit that their initiative is a largely symbolic act, the BBC's environment correspondent Richard Black says.

But they argue that if politics is failing to curb global warming, then other avenues - including the law - must be used, our correspondent says.

If Unesco agrees with the submissions, it can ask member states to take corrective action.

However, even if Unesco does demand emission cuts, there is nothing in its rules which would force governments to obey, our correspondent adds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4018261.stm