These Greenpeace-issued photographs show Mount Everest in 1968 (top) and this
year (above), which the environmental group argues show how global warming
has destroyed the field of ice towers on the glacier. Photo: Greenpeace
THESE two photographs taken 40 years apart show how one of the world's spectacular ice formations, the field of ice towers or serac forest, around Mount Everest, is shrinking.
Greenpeace, which released the photographs yesterday, says this is global warming in action.
The original picture from 1968 was taken by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Greenpeace has made three expeditions to the the area in the past two years.
Its campaigners were unable to reach the spot where they believed the 1968 picture was taken because a smaller glacier that was there four decades ago has disappeared, making the area impassable.
The season in which the 1968 photograph was taken is also unknown, though there are only two periods when the area is habitable by humans.
Greenpeace says there are two climbing seasons for Everest, April-May and September-October, so it is highly likely the 1968 shot was taken in one of these two seasons.
