Nothing has really gone right for China's environment in the past year as they prepare to host the summer Olympics. So far, they have had to contend with:

• a freak snowstorm in February
• the devastating May earthquake
• waves of rope-like green algae
• swarms of locusts
• smog that looks worse than ever before

So far, none of these rather Biblical events have altered China's plans to clean up Mt. Everest, called by some "the highest trash dump in the world." There are an estimated 120 TONS of trash up there - including at least 120 corpses of mountaineers. Just how do you clean up a mountain over 29,000 feet high? It's not exactly a day at the beach.

Let The Cleaning Begin!

In part, you clean up a mountain with volunteers.  Lots and lots of volunteers. (Whether they were actual volunteers or told they were volunteers remains to be seen). Official press reports that the volunteers consisted of people aged 18 - 50 experienced in climbing over 3,500 feet. In May, 33 volunteers went up Mt Everest on the Tibetan side and managed to haul down an impressive ten tons of trash in a mere ten days from 6500 feet up the slope.

Clean-ups of Everest seem to be happening in conjunction with the Olympiads impending arrival. The previous two all-volunteer litter pick-ups were in 2006 (1.3 tons of junk removed) and 2004 (eight tons). The trash is coming down the way it went up - through the effort of mountaineers. Most of the trash picked up consists of drink bottles, tents, tins, spirit stoves, oxygen canisters and human feces.

There has not been a general decision over what to do with the more than 120 frozen solid corpses. The corpses eventually become sealed to the mountain and cannot be moved even if you want to move them. The odds are that they will be buried under rock cairns and committed to the mountain, since that's the only logical way of burying them. 

Huge Problems For Everest

Most of the trash appears to be on the Chinese side, since there aren't any fines for littering on Mt Everest there. On the Tibetan side, stiff fines are given to anyone who does not haul down everything they brought up the mountain. The most lax officials, who don't care what you leave on the mountain, can be found in Nepal.

Mt Everest also has other problems besides litterbugs. Its glacier, the Rongbuk, is melting fast (as is the habit of glaciers these days.)  It has lost nearly 500 feet in the last decade.  The main reason for this melt is climate change. This glacier used to act as a treasure chest of fresh water, but will be gone in thirty years if we don't cut down on global carbon emissions. When the glacier is gone, all of the unique wildlife that lives in the Himalayas will likely disappear, too. And the countries which rely on the once-plentiful water will have to adapt or perish themselves.

Picking up the trash on Everest is a start, but it won't solve the bigger environmental issues that are plaguing China.