A group of Nepalese ministers have gathered in the Mount Everest
region for a Cabinet meeting being billed as the highest ever — a
stunt meant to highlight the threat global warming poses to Himalayan
glaciers.
Nepal's cabinet is due to hold a meeting on a plateau 5,262 metres
(17,192 feet) high, in the shadow of Mount Everest, to draw attention
to the effects of global warming before the climate change summit in
Copenhagen.
Scientists say the Himalayan glaciers are melting at an alarming rate
and creating huge glacial lakes that threaten to burst, devastating
mountain communities downstream.
They warn that the glaciers could disappear within decades, bringing
drought to large swathes of Asia, where 1.3 billion people depend on
rivers that originate in the Himalayas