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Ngawang Tenzing Jangpo
"The glaciers are shrinking rapidly." The Abbot of Tengboche monastery, Ngawang Tenzing Jangpo
© WWF
The Abbot of Tengboche monastery, Ngawang Tenzing Jangpo, is the most revered monk in Khumbu, Nepal. He has lived there for more than 30 years and witnessed floods from lakes bursting with glacial meltwater. This is his firsthand account of the effects of climate change.
The temperature of the earth is rising. It is not natural.
People are becoming materialistic and don't care.
Climbing Everest has become a fashion. All people want to do is reach the top. And you can see for yourself that climbing Everest has become so easy today. I hear they can do it in eight hours!
This is because there is less snow. The glaciers are shrinking rapidly.
The Sherpas of Khumbu may not know everything, but they are suffering the consequences of the people's greed. We mountain people should be careful and take precautions.
It is high time that Nepalese started to depend less on foreigners. Why do we need foreigners to come here and tell us that our glaciers are melting?
The solution for the people in the Himalayas is not to move down to the cities. They will have more problems there. Kathmandu already has a water shortage problem. If we don't save Khumbu today our fresh water will dry up and the problem will be impossible to solve in the future.
We cannot remain indifferent to each other's problems.
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