Activities of climbers visiting Mount Everest could melt about 2,500 tons of glaciers and snow each year, according to a research study.
The analysis shows that not only fuel used for heating and cooking, but even the heat from the urine discharged by climbers has an impact.
An international research team, including a senior surveying officer from Nepal's Ministry of Land Management, recently published the results of analyzing the Khumbu Glacier—where the base camp on the Nepali side of Mount Everest is located—in the international journal Regional Environmental Change.
During the spring climbing season, thousands of climbers, guides, and support staff flock to the Mount Everest base camp, which operates tents equipped with cafes, high-speed internet, hot shower facilities, and even heated floors.
According to the researchers, during the spring of 2023 over a period of about 50 days, operating 1,600 tents at the base camp consumed 824 cylinders of liquefied petroleum gas, 18,935 liters of kerosene, and 5,130 liters of gasoline.
It is estimated that a total of 849,174 megajoules of thermal energy was generated by combining the fuel used for cooking, heating, and power generation with the heat transferred from human urine, which is enough energy to melt 2,492 tons of glaciers and snow.
When 2,500 tons of ice and snow melt into water, it is an amount that can fill an international-standard Olympic swimming pool.
In particular, the amount of glaciers melted by human urine alone was analyzed to be substantial.
Due to drinking large amounts of water at high altitudes to prevent dehydration, thousands of climbers and guides discharge more than 6,000 liters of urine a day.
While feces are collected in storage tanks and transported down the mountain, a significant amount of urine is discharged directly onto the glaciers.
The researchers estimated that the heat transferred from urine alone could melt about 154 tons of ice in a single season.
The researchers explained that the actual impact of human activities could be even greater, as this calculation did not include the effects of helicopter operations, the body heat of climbers, or yaks transporting supplies.
While global climate change is the primary cause of the melting of Everest's glaciers, the researchers pointed out that the current practice of concentrating thousands of people on glaciers that are already melting rapidly to generate additional heat is not sustainable.
(Reported by Jung Da-eun, Video by Lee Eui-sun, Design by Lee Jeong-ju, Produced by SBS Digital News)
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