When politicians get together, their meetings are often noted for the presence of a lot of “hot air.” But the air was decidedly cold – and thin – at the most recent meeting of Nepal’s national cabinet today. Aided by 40 tanks of oxygen, the Himalayan country’s prime minister and 22 cabinet members convened today in the shadow of Mount Everest, amid freezing temperatures at an altitude of 17, 192 feet.
Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP
Helicopters conveyed the ministers to the Kalapattar Plateau, where they met outdoors against a backdrop of icy peaks to draw attention to “the huge challenge” that Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said climate change poses to his very poor country.
Reliant upon the perpetual snows and glaciers of the highest Himalayas for its agricultural economy and the water needs of its people, Nepal stands to suffer greatly as those features diminish. Nepal’s glaciers are already melting rapidly as the climate warms and precipitation patterns are changing.
Read more about the cabinet meeting in this story from French news agency AFP’s Kathmandu Bureau. And on Climate Pool’s blog, there’s more on the controversy surrounding the meeting location, which some see as a foolish gimmick that wasted CO2.
Written By Wendy Worrall Redal.
