Had China been a strand of language, it would have been an actionable verb. Always on the move, always on the brink of gaining yet another important milestone- does China ever stop at someplace- we will never know. It could be said, there are no full stops, no phases of boredom in the ever-enterprising journey of China whether one speaks of its economic might or now as witnessed in recent times- the realm of technology and enterprise.
So interested to figure out what China is up to these days? Forget about what the corporate dossiers are carrying out. Leave aside it’s conquering of the trade and economic scene in places as far and wide as the African continent. The land of the oriental is hotting up some action at the top of the world’s tallest mountainous peak- the Mount Everest.
It’s no longer a baffling surprise if you are at the Chinese heartland that the Mount Everest is among the most popular destinations that attract dozens of adventurous youth to conquer a truly daunting peak, there’s something rather sullen and dour about Mount Everest. In the many years leading to this point, the popular mountain peak has generated tons and tons of waste. Here’s the common story.
In close to the last two decades, there’s been a constant piling of waste and garbage on a truly beautiful mountain peak. Alarmed by the sight and ever-determined to take matters into its own hands, China launched a cohesive action plan. The task is that of cleaning up the mountain from the waste that had accumulated on account of the climbers’, adventurists’ haste.
But at the present, China is busy in clearing the unwanted mess in what is truly an admirable and year-round busy spot in the North. So, the question is what is China exactly up to?
In the recent times, China has assembled a team of nearly 30 experts whose task is to collect the waste that’s been amassed in an unruly manner up north and has already succeeded where the recent efforts stand. So far, as much as 8.5 tonnes of waste have been cleared off from Mount Everest ever since China came up with an action plan in the past month of April.
As the number of visitors increased up toward the Mount Everest, so did the accumulation of waste and garbage, clearly a blithe on the face of a country that’s known to take care of its heritage and culture.
Truly speaking, the entire task of clearing up the garbage from the northern edge of the Mount Everest may not have been an easy task- in the first place. While, cleaning up a mess is always, in itself, a challenge of a sort, here China’s role was to clean up the mess accumulated at such a challenging site- that of Mount Everest. It’s as onerous a challenge as to be feeding butter to a Godzilla, to speak of comparisons.
Each year, enthusiasts from around the world flock to the Mount Everest. Their desire is to see the panoramic view from up top. And in this process of daring or daredevilry, call it what you may, there’s an unwanted leave-behind. Can garbage ever be anything else than being an eyesore? Thus, it was up to China to clear the mess. What has been gathered, according to news reports, is around 5.2 tonnes of household waste and sadly, around 2.3 tons of human faecal matter. Can you imagine how laborious must have been this task, along with being absolutely gut-wrenching?
At an altitude where one can have acerbic challenges in breathing, China is breathing a fresh lease of life. It has to be said- China’s move is visionary. In the sense that at an altitude where most wouldn’t even think of stepping in, let alone spending any comfortable moments ever, the Asian country is successfully cleaning up the mess which hasn’t actually been created by its own. Efforts to clear garbage and waste from this peak altitude have been on since 2015. Tibet’s side of climbers and mountain rangers have always been given at least two trash bags that they are to carry to the top in order to not dispense things around. At least 8 kgs of rubbish are to be collected by climbers on their way behind. Any failure to do so, it is a fact, would result in levying a fine of up to $100 for every kilogram of waste not meeting the expected mark.
Even as this may read a little stiff for commoners, there’s hardly any other way out.
And that doesn’t seem to be the only problem at this stage. Lest it is forgotten that we are in an age where climate change is a problem in itself. Here’s what one has to know and knowing which will make one tip the hat to the country for the sheer enormity of its efforts in cleaning up the Mount Everest.
Since this is the warming global climate, one experiences melted frozen garbage left by climbers over the past few decades, spurring environmental concern in Nepal, India and China, which is taking tough measures to clean up air, water and soil contaminated after decades of breakneck growth.