Himalayan meeting drives home impact of global warming

Syangboche : Nepal's top politicians strapped on oxygen tanks on Friday and held a Cabinet meeting amid Mount Everest's frigid, thin air to highlight the danger global warming poses to glaciers, ahead of next week's international climate change talks.

The government billed the stunt as the world's highest Cabinet meeting.

The ministers, wearing yellow oxygen masks and purple sashes which read ‘Save the Himalayas,' sat at folding tables set up on a plateau with the snow-capped peak of Mount Everest behind them.

They posed for pictures, signed a commitment to tighten environmental regulations and expand the nation's protected areas — and then quickly flew away.

"The Everest declaration was a message to the world to minimise the negative impact of climate change on Mount Everest and other Himalayan mountains," Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said.

Scientists say the Himalayan glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, creating lakes with walls that could burst and flood villages below.

Melting ice and snow also make the routes for mountaineers less stable and more difficult to follow.

Extensive planning

Getting the ministers to the mountain safely required extensive planning.

The prime minister, his two deputy prime ministers and the 20 Cabinet ministers were examined by doctors before boarding helicopters to Kalapathar, next to Everest base camp, the jumping point for climbers seeking to scale the peak.

The Himalayan Rescue Association's Bikram Neupane said the politicians — bundled in thick jackets, wind-proof gear and woolen hats — all had adequate oxygen levels in their blood and were in no immediate danger. The Cabinet spent only 20 minutes next to the mountain on a clear, sunny day in an effort to prevent any of the ministers, unused to the heights of the Himalayas, from getting altitude sickness.

Several of the ministers were overweight, some were in their 70s and many came from the low-lying plains in the south. Four ministers declined to attend either because of health concerns or because they were travelling abroad.

Though rescue helicopters were on standby, none of the officials fell ill.

The ministers stayed overnight on Thursday in the town of Lukla, about 9,180 feet (2,800 metres) high, to acclimatise to the higher elevation. They then travelled to Syangboche — 12,800 feet (3,900 metres) high — where they took the helicopter to the world's highest mountain.

Attention

The event came ahead of the international climate change conference next week in Copenhagen, Denmark, and was intended "to get the world's attention on the impact global warming is having on underdeveloped countries like Nepal," Environment Minister Thakur Sharma said.

The talks are aimed at agreement on measures to check the rise in global temperatures that scientists warn could lead to devastating results in rising sea levels, shrinking access to drinking water, shifting agriculture and spreading diseases.

Nepal's negotiation team in Copenhagen will push for wealthy countries to commit 1.5 per cent of their earnings to help poorer nations protect the environment, he said.