Mount Everest Environmental Issues

As interest in Mount Everest has exploded, bringing hundreds of prospective climbers to the mountain's massive slopes each year, pollution and littering have persisted as serious and growing concerns. The danger of human presence to the mountain's beauty and integrity has been recognized by both elite and amateur climbers, owners and guides of commercial expeditions, the Nepali and Chinese governments, sherpas, environmentalists, and the media. Various efforts to curb this trend of destruction have been launched in the past and have become even more vital to the health of the mountain in recent years. Without them, the piles of trash would grow unceasingly at exponential rates and spread diseases which are particularly deadly when contracted under strained conditions at high altitudes.

When the first human feet (belonging to Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay) touched the summit of Mount Everest in 1953, it was a pristine and totally sacred mass of rock and ice. For the most part, it remained that way for years, until summiting Everest became seen as an attainable, albeit difficult, achievement for the general public. Since that initial summit in 1953, there have been over 8,000 successful summits, the vast majority having been completed since 2000 (Arnette, 2018). Of course, that number is only a fraction of the total number of attempts. While

Its team has met with both the Sagarmatha National Park Buffer Zone Management Committee, and the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, the two government agencies with jurisdiction in the area (“Mount Everest Biogas Project,” 2018). Both offered strong support for the project (“Mount Everest Biogas Project,” 2018). Additionally, the MEBP has gained approval from the Gorak Shep Teahouse Owners Association for the site of the digester, indicating local support and cooperation (“Mount Everest Biogas Project,”