Due To Climate Change, Khumbu Glacier Melting, Nepalese Government Forced To Move Base Camp For Climbers Of Everest

Due to climate change the glaciers in the Khumbu are now melting. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - The Nepalese government, reported by the BBC, was forced to move the Everest base camp from the Khumbu glacier which began to melt. Research shows that the Khumbu glacier is rapidly thinning as a result of climate change.

"We're seeing an increase in rock fall and the movement of meltwater across the glacier's surface which can be dangerous," Scott Watson, a researcher at the University of Leeds who studies glaciers, told the BBC.

The current base camp location has become unstable due to melting ice and is no longer safe for climbers. Even some climbers say cracks appeared in the ground overnight, and guides say they expect more avalanches and ice to fall at the site in the next few weeks.

The new base camp will be at an altitude of about 200 to 400 meters lower, and be in a place where there is no ice all year round.

However, climate change is not the only contributing factor. The reason is the large number of people who visit and pass the base camp adds to the destabilization.

"For example, we found that people urinate about 4.000 liters at base camp every day," Khimlal Gautam, a member of the committee that recommended the measure, told the BBC.

"And the huge amounts of fuel like kerosene and gas that we burn there to cook and warm will definitely have an impact on glacier ice," he added.

Conditions on Mount Everest are deteriorating rapidly overall, not just at base camp. Other glaciers are also melting, as they lose ice in a few years that takes hundreds of years to develop.

It made climbing the world's highest mountain even more dangerous. The thawing also revealed the frozen bodies of past climbers and piles of trash.

The Nepal Department of Tourism still has to discuss the relocation plan with local stakeholders, including local communities who may be affected by the changes. But if everything goes according to plan, the base camp could move in 2024.