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Climate change has led to a chilling discovery on Mount Everest.

Climate change has led to a chilling discovery on Mount Everest.
via Gunther Hagleitner / Flickr

Mount Everest is the Earth's highest mountain, rising 29,029 feet above sea level on the border of China and Nepal. The first known people to reach its summit were Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary in 1953, and since, over 48,000 have reached its peak.

Over 300 people have met their demise on the icy mountain. But what happens on Everest stays on Everest, including the dead bodies.

Given the mountain's treacherous terrain, it costs $40,000 to $80,000 to have a corpse brought down, so nearly two-thirds of those who've died remain on the mountain. Plus, for some climbers, being left on the icy slopes of Everest is an honor.

“Most climbers like to be left on the mountains if they died," Alan Arnette, a noted mountaineer, told the BBC. “So it would be deemed disrespectful to just remove them unless they need to be moved from the climbing route or their families want them."

One such unfortunate soul is Tsewang Paljor, known by climbers as “Green Boots." In 1996, he died during an intense blizzard and his body has become a marker for hikers near the summit.

In recent years, more of the Everest fallen are becoming visible due to climate change. “Because of global warming, the ice sheet and glaciers are fast melting, and the dead bodies that remained buried all these years are now becoming exposed," Ang Tshering Sherpa, former president of Nepal Mountaineering Association, said in a statement.

“We have noticed that the ice level at and around the base camp has been going down, and that is why the bodies are becoming exposed," Sherpa said.

Bodies have also been surfacing at the Khumbu Icefall, one of the most dangerous parts of the South Col route to Everest's summit.

[rebelmouse-image 19479845 dam="1" original_size="812x410" caption="via Brigitte Djajasasmita / Flickr" expand=1]via Brigitte Djajasasmita / Flickr

Some corpses are currently being removed from the Chinese side of the mountain to prepare for the spring hiking season, but most are staying put on the Nepal side because of a law that requires government agencies' involvement when dealing with bodies.

Last year, a team of researchers drilled the Khumbu Glacier and found the coldest ice was 2C warmer than the mean annual air temperature.

While the newly-exposed bodies on Everest are a chilling sight, if climate change continues, there will be much larger problems in the surrounding area. Melting glaciers on Everest and other Himalayan mountains will disrupt water availability in the region. This will have disastrous effects on farming and hydropower.

Göran Höglund (Kartläsarn) / Flickr

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ACUVUE launches a new campaign to inspire Gen Z to put down their phones and follow their vision

What will you create on your social media break? Share it at #MyVisionMySight.

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If you’ve always lived in a world with social media, it can be tough to truly understand how it affects your life. One of the best ways to grasp its impact is to take a break to see what life is like without being tethered to your phone and distracted by a constant stream of notifications.

Knowing when to disconnect is becoming increasingly important as younger people are becoming aware of the adverse effects screen time can have on their eyes. According to Eyesafe Nielsen, adults are now spending 13-plus hours a day on their digital devices, a 35% increase from 2019.1. Many of us now spend more time staring at screens on a given day than we do sleeping which can impact our eye health.

Normally, you blink around 15 times per minute, however, focusing your eyes on computer screens or other digital displays have been shown to reduce your blink rate by up to 60%.2 Reduced blinking can destabilize your eyes’ tear film, causing dry, tired eyes and blurred vision.3

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via UnbreakableMomma/TikTok

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A mom who admitted she packs her 2-year-old a meal when they go out to dinner has started an interesting debate on TikTok about restaurant etiquette and how it applies to young children.

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These plots makes zero sense.

While there are no doubt some timeless classics from our childhood that remain every bit as amazing as we remember, many are straight-up cringey upon a later viewing. Really, it’s to be expected as societal viewpoints change…sort of a marker of how far we’ve collectively come.

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Man's 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' lifeline call to dad is still thrilling 24 years later

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Dorothy "Dottie" Fideli, decided that she was going to break the mold. The 77-year-old sat down and thought about all of the things she had done in life and who was with her the entire time cheering her on. It was an easy answer: herself. She was her biggest cheerleader, the person who always showed up and the love of her life, so Fideli made the plan to marry herself.

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via Eva Rinaldi/Flickr

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