Earth Equity News

House Flies at Everest Basecamp -- Another Sign of Climate Change that is Melting Glaciers with Worrying Speed, By John Vidal, Guardian (UK), October 12, 2009. "Earlier this year Dawa Steven Sherpa was resting at Everest base camp when he and his companions heard something buzzing... They searched and found a big black house fly, something unimaginable just a few years ago when no insect could have survived at 5,360 metres. 'It's happened twice this year -- the Himalayas are warming up and changing fast,' says Dawa, who only took up climbing seriously in 2006, but in a few years has climbed Everest twice as well as two 8,000m peaks in Tibet... 'What we see is the Himalayan glaciers melting. It's not a seasonal thing any more.... 'Look at the walls and slopes of the Khumbu glacier [which flows 1.5 miles down from an icefall on the southern flanks of Everest]. You can see a clear line where the black rock becomes white. That's where it's been exposed to the sun. That means metres of thick ice have melted in just a few decades,' he says... One of the most obvious changes... is the growth of what are known as glacial lake outburst floods (glofs). 'A glof happens when a glacial lake is created by a melting glacier and it then bursts. Imja lake is the most dramatic example of a potential one. It is growing 74m a year. When it bursts its banks, we will have a mountain tsunami. Billions of gallons of water will be released and it could wipe out about 70% of the trekking trail to Everest base camp. Not only will that destroy our homes and potentially kill people, but it will wipe out the jewel in the crown of Nepal's tourism industry,' he says."