Sir Edmund urges climate care

Conqueror of Everest Sir Edmund Hillary has urged world governments to protect the Himalayas from climate change. The World Heritage Committee, which supervises protection of sites of special interest, meets this week. Environmental campaigners, backed by Sir Edmund, want the committee to put the Sagarmatha National Park in the Himalayas on its danger list. This would mean governments are legally bound to protect it - which, they say, means cutting greenhouse gas emissions. In May 1953 Sir Edmund Hillary joined forces with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay on the first successful ascent of the world's highest mountain.

'Severe floods'
Ever since, he has devoted much time to projects which help peoples of the Himalayas. It is more than 50 years since Hillary and Tenzing made the ascent
Now, a few days short of his 86th birthday, he is turning his attention to climate change. "The warming of the environment of the Himalayas has increased noticeably over the last 50 years," he wrote in a statement sent to the BBC.
"This has caused several and severe floods from glacial lakes and much disruption to the environment and local people."

In 1985, the Dig Tsho glacial lake burst its banks, releasing a mountainside deluge which rushed through villages, bringing down 14 bridges. 'Thousands at risk' Three years ago, a study by the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep)and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (Icimod) found more than 40 glacial lakes filling so rapidly that a similar outburst was likely. Tens of thousands of lives were at risk, it concluded, with Unep's Executive Director Klaus Toepfer describing the situation as "another compelling reason to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4668627.stm

I am having trouble finding anything at all to be hopeful for these days. We have ruined our nation and, not content with that, we have ruined the entire world. The blood of so many innocents is on our collective hands.

Cyclic warming and cooling, wet and dry periods, are normal, and have been fairly extreme for the past 2.5 million years. The ice age cycle is about 100 kY long, and we're "due".

I compare what is happening to this scenario: children playing with matches in a very dry area on the brink of ignition, like the San Bernardino area was two years ago. You know there's going to be a big wildfire, but the kids with the matches make the difference between an orderly transition and a flash catastrophe.

But I, too, fear the "conflagration". Our modern political and resource-use regime is far too fragile to withstand a major climate change. But nature will do as it always has, and if we're not ready for it, life will become ... unpleasant.

--p!