The title of this article is a modern version of line 100 from “The Owl and the Nightingale,” an anonymous 12th- or 13th-century Middle English poem detailing a debate between an owl and a nightingale about whether it is better to be mirthful or sorrowful. While the meaning of the poem is still hotly debated by literary scholars, the sentiment expressed in this line certainly applies to the human race today. And we have nothing to be mirthful about regarding the state of the human “nest.”
Mankind has a deliberate, perverse, and age-old addiction to graffiti, but, it also leaves its foul marks elsewhere and on a much bigger scale. It has polluted the Earth’s land, its oceans, and even the upper limits of Earth’s atmosphere. Remember The Great Smog of 1952 in London which killed at least 4000 people; think “the great Pacific garbage patch”; consider the fact that Ecuador’s first and only satellite just recently collided with a Russian rocket fragment in space. The list is endless and endlessly depressing.
The “big” signs of pollution obviously hurt humanity in terms of basic health needs and economic costs. But the fouling of our earthly nest is also aesthetic. We pay lip service to a clean nest – but we sure don’t do much upkeep. One of the saddest examples is that of Mount Everest, our loftiest aerie and a symbol of remoteness and lack of contamination from mankind. Alas, we’ve managed to foul that nest as well.
“Since 1953, the number of visitors to the Everest region has soared: from about 1,400 in 1972/73; to 31,599 tourists accompanied by 60,000 trekking and expedition staff and porters in 2008; and 32,124 tourists with some 80,000 back-up staff in 2010. This has meant a tremendous boost to the local economy. On the other hand, the heavy pressures exerted from tourism have been taking their toll – increased ecological degradation from erosion, wastes and deforestation. In addition, mountaineering expeditions have produced severe litter disposal problems on Mount Everest itself as well as along the trail from Lukla to Everest Base Camp. Of the many problems, pollution of water and the environment poses perhaps the severest threat to the health of the natural environment and of the people who depend on the snow-fed rivers for their livelihoods. The waste which is spread out all over the mountain consists of thousands of oxygen cylinders, gas cartridges, old tents, ropes, carcasses as well as all sorts of human waste. And with the increase in visitors to the region have come enormous amounts of untreated waste in the villages along the trail from Lukla up to Everest Base Camp” (savingmounteverest.org).
The “Saving Mount Everest” project (Ibid.) Clean-Up Expedition brought nearly 8 tons of garbage down from the mountain in 2011, and the Government of Nepal has formed the “Himalaya Environment Conservation, Monitoring and Management Committee” to formulate a new set of regulations on the Code of Conduct for all future trekking and climbing groups, to ensure environmentally sustainable waste-management systems for the entire region (see the United Nations Environment Programme press release on the subject). An organization called Glacierworks has also mobilized support for preserving Everest’s glaciers. The organization’s founder, American filmmaker and five-time Everest “summiteer” David Breashears, started the non-profit after noticing differences between the landscape he saw and a black-and-white photo taken by the early Everest adventurer George Mallory.
“The [Eco Everest Expedition] estimates that there might still be 10 tons of trash left on the mountain, and if the number of climbers on Everest keeps increasing, that figure will only grow. There’s no beating Hillary and Norgay, who pulled off a feat 60 years ago that many thought was physically impossible. But at least the thousands of climbers who have followed in their footsteps can take better care of this magnificent mountain” (Bryan Walsh, a senior writer for science.time.com).
Article by Bill Norrington
