Heat from fuel burned at Everest Base Camp and urine discharged directly onto the glacier are together melting an estimated 2,500 tonnes of ice and snow every year, according to new study.
An international team examined the Khumbu Glacier, which hosts the base camp on Nepal’s side of Mount Everest. Their findings, published in the journal Regional Environmental Change, highlight how human activity at the site is accelerating glacial melt.
The base camp becomes a crowded settlement during the spring climbing season, drawing thousands of mountaineers, guides and support workers. The camp has grown into a temporary tourist village featuring espresso cafes, large-screen televisions, high-speed internet, hot showers and heated tent floors, reports the Independent.
Researchers found that about 1,600 tents operating during the 50-day spring season in 2023 used 824 canisters of liquefied petroleum gas, 18,935 litres of kerosene and 5,130 litres of petrol for cooking, heating and electricity generation.
The fuel use, together with heat generated from human urine, produced an estimated 849,174 megajoules of energy. Researchers calculated that this was sufficient to melt around 2,492 tonnes of ice and snow.
Accounting for the margin of error, the estimated amount of melting ranges between 1,964 and 3,020 tonnes. The resulting volume of water is comparable to the capacity of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, about 83 tanker trucks or roughly 16,700 standard bathtubs.
Human urine was identified as a notable contributor to the heat load. Climbers and guides consume large quantities of water at high altitude to prevent dehydration, generating around 6,000 litres of urine each day.
Although solid waste is collected and transported down the mountain, a large portion of the urine is released directly onto the glacier. According to the researchers’ estimate, the heat from urine alone could melt approximately 154 tonnes of ice during one climbing season.
The researchers also identified evidence of broader warming around the base camp through satellite observations. An analysis of Landsat imagery covering the period from 1991 to 2023 showed that surface temperatures at the camp increased by an average of 0.28 degrees Celsius (0.28C) annually. This rate is roughly twice that recorded across the surrounding Khumbu Glacier.
The research team included Kim Lal Gautam, a senior surveyor at Nepal’s Department of Land Management. The researchers said the actual impact of human activity is likely to be greater because their calculations did not account for heat generated by helicopter flights, climbers’ body warmth or the yaks used to transport supplies.
The researchers stressed that climate change remains the main cause of glacial melt on Everest. However, they warned that the continued concentration of thousands of people on a glacier that is already melting rapidly is not sustainable.
“In the long term, relocating the base camp from the glacier to a stable nearby area should be considered,” the researchers recommended.
