Shouldering Waste on the Trek Down Mount Everest (Worse than Whitney?)

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eeek

Shouldering Waste on the Trek Down Mount Everest (Worse than Whitney?)
April 22, 2010 08:58PM

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In 1963 — just 10 years after the first ascent of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa guide -– a fellow climber, Dr. Barry Bishop, wrote in National Geographic that parts of the mountain had become “the highest junkyard on the face of the Earth.” Expedition teams were trashing Everest by wantonly disposing of empty oxygen canisters, torn tents and other rubbish at base camp and just a few thousand feet below the summit, Dr. Bishop reported.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/shouldering-waste-on-the-trek-down-mount-everest/?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment

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Vince

Re: Shouldering Waste on the Trek Down Mount Everest (Worse than Whitney?)
April 27, 2010 07:11PM

Registered: 15 years ago
Posts: 1,232

The space shuttle and other 'nauts pack out their trash from orbit. Why is that? Why not just launch the waste products into the atmosphere? I'm pretty sure it would never make it closer than maybe 50 miles above ground before being completely incinerated

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eeek

Re: Shouldering Waste on the Trek Down Mount Everest (Worse than Whitney?)
April 27, 2010 07:14PM

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Registered: 15 years ago
Posts: 17,051

Quote
Vince
The space shuttle and other 'nauts pack out their trash from orbit. Why is that? Why not just launch the waste products into the atmosphere?

Why not? Well...what would you use to impart the delta-v needed to make that trash reenter? Seems to me it's a lot easier just to bring it back in the shuttle since it's going there anyway.