Everest Threatened By Warming, Experts Claim

The depth of snow and ice on Mt. Everest's upper slopes varies throughout each year. In November, some scientists said cover on the world's highest peak could melt entirely if the Earth's warming continues, imperiling the water supply for the Indian subcontinent.

Less than a month after a body of scientists said rising temperatures could melt the arctic ice pack and leave polar bears extinct before the century ends, another group is claiming that increasing temperatures could leave Mt. Everest bare of ice in the foreseeable future.

Attorneys affiliated with the group Climate Justice were planning to deliver legal dossiers to a United Nations office in Paris by mid-November. The documents contend that rising temperatures triggered by greenhouse gases pose a serious threat to Everest, to coral reefs in Belize and to mountains in Peru, where glaciers are also melting. The United Nations is legally bound to protect the three World Heritage Sites, the lawyers contend.

Mark New, an Oxford University climatologist, said data from the Himalayas suggests that snow and ice cover is 30 percent reduced from levels recorded 30 years ago.