Macabre Effect Of Global Warming: Dead Bodies Emerging From Ice On Mount Everest

Because glaciers are melting, dead bodies of people who passed away
in climbing expeditions have been emerging from the glacier at this
high elevation camp on Mount Everest. Photo via BBC by
Doma Sherpa

Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, is a deadly place.

More than 4,800 have climbed to the top of Mount Everest. Nearly 300 other people died trying, according to the BBC.

In most cases, the people who died were left there, because of the obvious danger of bringing the deceased off the mountain. From there, snow and ice would entombed the fatalities forever.

Or so we thought. As the BBC reports: 

"Because of global warming, the ice sheet and the glaciers are fast melting and the dead bodies that remained buried all these years are now becomeing exposed, said Ang Tshering Sherpa, former president of Nepal Mountaineering Association."

Another person who is a liason officer on Everest said he has personally retrieved about 10 bodies in recent years from different spots on the mountain and more are emerging lately.

While most of the bodies are appearing because of glacial melting on Everest, some are emerging because of natural movements in the Khumbu Glacier, which sometimes exposes long-deceased people.

Climate change is actually creating far bigger risks in the Himalayas than the macabre exposure of dead mountaineers on Mount Everest.  Melting glaciers over time threaten the water supply of perhaps a tenth or more of the world's population.

According to National Geographic:

"The Hindu Kush Himalaya encompass hundreds of the world's most iconic mountains, hold over 30,000 square miles of glacier ice - more than anywhere else in the world besides the poles - and sustain 240 million people in the peaks and valleys. The mountain ranges also cradle the headwaters of rivers like the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra that provide water to billions in the lowlands downstream."

Most of the snow in the highest elevations in much of the Himalayas actually comes during the summer. At that time of year, the monsoons that sometimes cause flooding in the low elevations to the south sneak up to the Himalayas, creating big summer snowstorms.

However, in general, the monsoons have been weakening, meaning less snow falls. That downward trend in snowfall is expected to continue with climate change, so snowfall in the high mountains will continue to decrease, says National Geographic.

Less snowfall eventually means less ice for the glaciers. And global warming threatens to increase melting of those glaciers. A double whammy.

Eventually, the fear is the glaciers will get so small that they'll reduce the amount of water feeding into rivers. These are the rivers that those billions of people rely upon.

On top of all that bad news, there's a shorter term danger, according to the National Geographic article.

Melting glaciers feed into glacial lakes. Rocks, dirt and debris typically hold these lakes back. If melting increases, the lakes will overwhelm these natural dams, sending walls of water into populated areas below.

All this is just another local, and very serious end result of climate change. I'm sure scientists will keep coming up with other reasons why this is all bad. I can't wait to find out more