China has closed its Everest base camp to the public due to a waste problem. Although the majority of mountain seekers take the northern route in Tibet, the Chinese base camp has become quite the attraction. They are issuing only 300 permits and climbers are required to pay $1,500 as a rubbish fee as well as having to carry 8 kilograms of waste down with them for return at the end of their journey. The human waste and pollution have gotten so bad that it is closed indefinitely.
This came from ABC news, which is my favorite source because it is straightforward, unbiased and provides short articles. My previous knowledge of this issue is slim to nothing. I knew that pollution was a growing issue across our world but I had absolutely no idea that it had such a great effect on such a famous landmark as Everest. However, the more I think about it the more it makes sense. The climbers take so many things up with them and as the trek gets more gruesome and they start to use up their supplies, it only makes sense to lose them along the way to lighten the load, but as we can see this has caused an enormous issue. Regardless of the effort necessary, I believe what goes up must be required to come down with them. It seems to me to be the best way to absolve the issue. This can be related to horribly polluted conditions in cities during the 18th and 19th centuries due to industrialization.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/china-closes-mount-everest-base-camp-tourists-garbage/story?id=61144089&cid=clicksource_4380645_3_three_posts_card_hed
So glad to hear news when people are trying to do something really big for our nature and it works. Hopefully, it really helped and changed the future and also showed and brought attention to other people
ReplyDelete~ Sophia Zhukova