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Mount Everest is visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory
- elcapitan 6y agoHm, is this actually true? According to this travel site, it was already possible before Corona? https://www.nestadventure.com/blog/mount-everest-from-kathmandu/ https://www.nestadventure.com/blog/mount-everest-from-kathma... "Contrary to everyone’s belief, Mount Everest can actually be seen from Kathmandu. The Chandragiri hills in Kathmandu offer a panoramic view of the Himalayan ranges and Mount Everest on a clear day. There are also viewpoints and hill stations just outside Kathmandu – Daman, Nagarjun and Nagarkot where the mountains are visible."
- remus 6y agoThe 'living memory' claim seems a bit far fetched, too. Let's pretend living memory means the last 100 years, that'd mean air pollution levels in 1920 wee so poor you couldn't see Everest from Kathmandu. I'm no expert, but I don't think Nepal and the surrounding area of China were industrialised at that time, and there definitely weren't many vehicles on the road at the time, so where would the air pollution have come from?
- idiocratic 6y agoBeen to Kathmandu several times and I wouldn't say Nepal is industrialised in general, but not even remotely at the level of China. What makes the air really bad in Kathmandu is the amount of old trucks and buses on the very dusty streets of the city. It's a different kind of air pollution to what you might experience in an industrialised nation. When I'm there I always wear a mask, otherwise a cough will develop almost for sure in a few hours. If you go a little bit outside of the city the air is very clean and the views are amazing.
- smcl 6y agoWere there many of these old trucks and buses around in Kathmandu in the 1920s?
- serf 6y agono, but it was still a sprawling metropolis, one assumes there was a lot of wood and coal burning going on. Here's a picture from Kathmandu in 1920. It appears to have poor visibility, but it's unclear from the picture whether or not that is pollution or weather. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kathmandu_Basantapur_Durbar_Square_in_1920.jpg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kathmandu_Basantapur_Du... here's another near the same period that shows similar levels of visibility: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Kathmandu_and_tundikhel_ca_1920.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Kathmand...
- rezeroed 6y ago"Here's a picture from Kathmandu in 1920. It appears to have poor visibility, but it's unclear from the picture whether or not that is pollution or weather." You don't think it's the quality of a 1920 photograph?
- executive 6y agoAlso: burning trash every night
- idiocratic 6y agoVery true, it's incredible the amount of burning that goes on in front of most houses at sunset. But I guess our cities in Europe were similar in the past, especially in the countryside.
- wahern 6y agoIn rural areas of the U.S. some people still burn their trash. As a kid who watched a lot of 20/20 and 60 Minutes, I was always afraid of the smoke because people would often toss batteries, PVC pipe, etc, in their trash pit. But it was normal behavior, so when visiting someone's house I just tried to stay upwind of the cancer cloud.
- austincheney 6y agoKabul is the same with a huge amount of air pollution, like a visible white fog. Kabul is also not incredibly industrialized. The hard part about Kabul is the geography. It is a raised elevation surrounded by a ring of mountains like a large crater on a giant mountain top. The bowl shape traps the air pollution within the city and it absolutely does obscure visibility.
- mixmastamyk 6y agoThere's a few places in my travels where I've picked black boogers... big cities in Nepal, India, and Venezuela.
- lsllc 6y agoLondon.
- pmorici 6y agoI agree with you, but pollution could have come from burning wood or coal for heating and cooking it isn’t all from industry.
- 101404 6y agoThat leads to the next question: why would Corona-stay-at-home stop people from cooking food or heating their homes?
- saagarjha 6y agoPerhaps they are using natural gas instead of biomass?
- 101404 6y agoNot really. Wood or coal stoves are still very much in use in villages. At least that's what I saw living in many developing countries for the past two decades. Btw, burning biomass would not change the problem. Wood and charcoal is biomass too.
- senorjazz 6y agoPeople in Kathmandu are using gas. That's a few million people. Sure in the villages, but the numbers pale in comparison
- 101404 6y agoWrong again. In developing countries, a majority of people live in the countryside. That's one thing that differentiates those countries from developed countries. But that's not really important, because even if only 20% of households used wood/coal for cooking, it is very much noticiable.
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoParticulate pollution from burning is mostly non-combusted junk. The bigger the scale the more it makes sense to invest in technology that lets you get more out of your fuel from more complete combustion. Someone just burning trash to get rid of it can burn it in a pit. Someone burning trash as a fuel for their industrial process that requires heat is going to invest in a gasifier burner so they're not spewing wasted joules out the smokestack.
- mytailorisrich 6y agoThe surrounding area of China is Tibet, which is virtually empty, so I doubt there is much pollution over there. I think the main issue in Kathmandu is that it is surrounded by mountains, which trap pollution in. This is a problem for all cities with similar geography.
- lb1lf 6y ago> so where would the air pollution have come from? -An ignorant (as I have never been within 1,000 miles of Kathmandu) guess is loads of wood-burning stoves; they soot like mad and can make Woody Allen[0] trust the air. [0] When asked about NYC air pollution, he allegedly quipped that he didn't trust air he couldn't see.
- gumby 6y agoAnswering only your final question: the smoke of burning wood and coal for heat. Coal fire was the cause of the infamous London “pea souper” fogs, for instance. It’s hard to remember now but burning gasoline and natural gas were significant improvements in the levels of pollution (and other hygiene factors) in cities during the 20th century. Of course at that time the only air pollution people were thinking of was particulates. Also it looks like Kathmandu is in a valley which can concentrate the issue so a smaller absolute amount of particulate pollution can have more impact than the same activity on a plain. I also question the “living memory” assertion.
- barbegal 6y agoAs far as I can tell this isn't true. Mount Everest can be seen from Kathmandu but not from the city center as it is obscured by Kang Nachugo see this image: https://i.imgur.com/4N3gs5V.jpg https://i.imgur.com/4N3gs5V.jpg If you got to the south of Kathmandu e.g. Chobar where this photo was taken, Everest is no longer obscured as seen from this image https://i.imgur.com/JCMmhTs.png https://i.imgur.com/JCMmhTs.png where the line between the Everest summit and Chobar is seen passing Kang Nachugo.
- checker659 6y agoI've been to Chandragiri and I can attest to this. You can almost see the entire Himalayan range on a clear sunny day (including Mt. Everest). They even have powerful binoculars set up for better viewing.
- hasanalikhattak 6y agoWell whether or not true is another discussion. Important is , there definitely is a pattern in air quality increase in many places, and what seems to be contributing factor is the minimized human moment. I hope we find a sustainable solution to improve the air we breathe.
- nixish 6y agoI am from Kathmandu. Yes, technically, you could see Mt. Everest on a clear dawn from Fulchowki or Chandragiri. But, seeing Mt. Everest sitting from my terrace at home in Kathmandu (theoretically as I am in Boston, but some of my folks in Nepal see Sagarmatha (Everest) now) would not have been possible without all this pollution throughout Nepal going away.
- nabn 6y agoChandragiri hills is at a higher altitude than Kathmandu valley.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago> Many of our COPD patients who need regular follow-up haven’t shown up because their symptoms have eased. Some have called to say they don’t require oxygen therapy anymore.” If this is at all similar to the experience in the US, while some people may have seen their symptoms improve, a lot of people are avoiding doctors and hospitals out of fear of getting COVID, and are skipping out on routine checkups and care.
- TeMPOraL 6y agoCOPD + COVID sounds like a death sentence, so if I suffered from it, I too would avoid hospitals (and anyone else) like the literal plague.
- acslater00 6y agoI can't speak for COPD but I'm very familiar with a different chronic pulmonary disease (Cystic Fibrosis), and it seems to _strangely_ not be a huge risk factor for poor COVID outcomes. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569199320301259 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S156919932... No one really has a good story for why (and it may not hold) but it seems to be consistent with the idea that the most important variable is truly just age.
- 411111111111111 6y agoLast study I read put a 99% correlation on vitamin d deficiency and getting a severe case of covid19. Which was significantly more than age correlated on the same dataset.
- rndgermandude 6y agoVitamin-D deficiency may cause severe covid-19, or severe covid-19 may cause vitamin-D deficiency (covid-19 affects the kidneys second worst after lungs it seems, and you need kidneys for vitamin-D processing), or a little bit of both. Which one it is, is not yet known.
- nodesocket 6y agoPerhaps I am being very skeptical, but I am failing to understand how three months of lockdown all the sudden eliminates decades of pollution. Something does not add uphere.
- dboreham 6y agoIt doesn't hang around in the air at its point of origin for decades.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- chipperyman573 6y agoMostly a severe reduction in air travel (airplane fuel is really really really bad for the environment)
- mvid 6y agoUnlikely. Usually mostly due to agricultural burning and motor vehicles.
- catalogia 6y agoRoad vehicles and agricultural vehicles have both been using ULSD for the past 10 or so years in America, and it's my impression that this is common elsewhere in the developed world too. ULSD has two orders of magnitude less sulfur than common jet fuel.
- iguy 6y agoKathmandu is far from this, by the way. IIRC a major component of the smog was from smugglers adulterating the fuel, e.g. adding kerosene to gasoline.
- catalogia 6y ago
- mmaunder 6y agoThis is why we need less humans on this planet. No one says that, because having as many kids as you like seems to be considered a basic human right. But imagine Earth with a stable 10% of our current population. Clean, abundant, and without the catastrophic extinction event already underway.
- gonzo41 6y agoSo you're taking steps and not having children then?
- frequentnapper 6y agoAd hominem - tool of the mentally weak.
- whatshisface 6y agoThe irony of your comment is not lost on me. ;)
- frequentnapper 6y agoI'm just speaking in general terms of course :p
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- mmaunder 6y agoCorrect. I’m 46 years old, healthy, fertile, heterosexual and I don’t have any kids. How about you?
- seibelj 6y agoI'm doing what my ancestors did, from 3.75 billion years ago until now - reproduce!
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Lidador 6y agoThis proves Earth is flat!
- djaychela 6y agoAs soon as I saw the picture, I thought there will be a load of flat earthers saying this just provides them with more evidence... But TBH I didn't expect to see it as a comment here. I find the whole FE thing fascinating but disturbing, so I'll anticipate new videos on YouTube trying desperately to show that this backs up their argument despite (as another commenter here says) only the top being visible.
- happppy 6y agoso why am I only able to see the tip and not the whole mountain?
- withinboredom 6y agoA flat earther will probably argue that it must mean that the height of Mount Everest is a conspiracy since it's clearly the same height as a regular mountain.
- nurettin 6y agoI'm surprised there isn't more of this in the thread.
- adelpozo 6y agoAny chance to see a “before” picture? I searched without success. Or is that kind of the point?
- mkl 6y agoI think that's the point! I found some possible candidates on Google Street View (which only has isolated spots): From Chobhar in March 2019, facing Everest: https://www.google.com/maps/@27.6541403,85.2796492,3a,75y,78.31h,101.37t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipP6gyL_odLZG2K89Er6AtpuxJwaT300-z8WkTKv!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP6gyL_odLZG2K89Er6AtpuxJwaT300-z8WkTKv%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-20-ya68-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352 https://www.google.com/maps/@27.6541403,85.2796492,3a,75y,78... Elsewhere in Kathmandu in April 2020, facing Everest: https://www.google.com/maps/@27.6745306,85.3249687,3a,75y,59.36h,92.03t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNk_FgppdLN2WTnmLj0-xGO4IwFI6UYFx5jqlBD!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNk_FgppdLN2WTnmLj0-xGO4IwFI6UYFx5jqlBD%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya306.86493-ro-0-fo100!7i9000!8i4500 https://www.google.com/maps/@27.6745306,85.3249687,3a,75y,59... There's no hope of seeing that far through the haze.
- pvg 6y agoIt looks like if you get out of the valley itself, you can see Everest from a nearby hill on which there's a viewing platform of some sort. http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1016837.shtml http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1016837.shtml
- acslater00 6y agoIt's amazing and wonderful how much environmental damage seems to be recovering. Air pollution is down, carbon emissions are down as much as 17%, fish and sharks are repopulating shorelines and beaches - and to think, all it took was the most severe public health crisis in 100 years, a catastrophic global recession, and an overpowering wave of human misery and death
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoAs predicted.
- ponker 6y agoWell, the day that humans manage to wipe themselves off the face of the planet will be a day of rejoicing for all species other than rats, raccoons, and cockroaches.
- justforfunhere 6y agoCare to explain why not for rats, raccoons and cockroaches?
- oliveshell 6y agoThey’re hardy scavengers that benefit from human settlement and food waste.
- monkeywork 6y agoI wonder how far back (if any) the lockdown pushed the doom clock around global climate change?
- Lapland 6y agoHere's an article that's a bit more in-depth on the effects https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0797-x https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0797-x
- ComputerGuru 6y agoImpossibly best case scenario, two months and change? A drop in the bucket.
- BLKNSLVR 6y agoI'm hoping this is a significantly sized piece of the puzzle in the proof against the 'us puny humans can't affect something as large as the earth's atmosphere' climate denial argument. Since the lockdowns the horizon where I live has no brown haze smeared over, and it's not even a significantly sized city (population ~1.5 million), but the lack of haze is noticeable. The presence of the brown smear haze was actually one of the things that made real scale of the effect humanity has on the quality and content of the air that enters our lungs.
- lostlogin 6y agoThe lack of rubbish on the streets, quiet nights, quiet streets, families out walking/biking and increased bird numbers nearby have been great. Being a lockdown enthusiast is probably a bit much, but I’ll miss aspects of it.
- olivermarks 6y agoLonger term Covid19 is very bad for public transport. People are gravitating back to owning their own germ free vehicles Time to buy a car? Industry hopes for coronavirus silver lining | Free to read https://www.ft.com/content/488d5886-c6af-4e80-a479-36aca26edd1d https://www.ft.com/content/488d5886-c6af-4e80-a479-36aca26ed...
- iainmerrick 6y agoThough hopefully using them less, at least? If you’re sufficiently worried about COVID to switch from public transport to a car, why would you use it to travel into an office every day?
- rcMgD2BwE72F 6y agoBecause, for most employees, this decision is not theirs, and they need their salary to survive?
- BLKNSLVR 6y agoI like how the car industry is hoping based on a once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic response. Gives me no confidence for their long term future. If people are getting by without a car now, I wouldn't think this situation would make them rush back into owning one. For one thing, if you don't have a job to go to, then you don't need one and probably have better things to spend your money on. And for another, and as a member of a 4-person, 2-car family, a car is expensive to buy, expensive to run day-to-day, and expensive to maintain, which is a reason some people have re-arranged their lives around not needing one. Thirdly, the purchase of a new (to the person, not necessarily brand new off the production line / ship) car, where I'm from anyway, is announcement-worthy; it's a date-on-the-calendar circling in red pen event. There's an excitement about the new 'you' that you're going to be seen as on the road. This gives the act of the purchase of a new car some intrinsic value and a bump in personal 'brand'; a dopamine hit. That whole schtick doesn't exist when you have to buy a fucking car to avoid a virus. It's a begrudging purchase, and all the expense that goes along with it will only increase the resentment of the requirement; the reminders of dealing with traffic, the hassle of getting petrol (not even necessarily the paying for it). All these will be reminders of why they avoided car ownership and will see them re-pursuing that option ASAFP. If there is a bump in car ownership, as that article states is the case in China, then I'd be tipping there'll be a bump in second-hand car sales within 12 - 18 months. I've been saying for the last five years that my next car will be electric. The last couple of years I'm questioning how I can arrange things so my next car is a bike, or my feet, or a scooter, or anything smaller, cheaper, and less hassle. Something else to file under obvious, but not until you think about it: I donate plasma once a month or so, and in chatting to the people that work at the blood donation centre, they were saying that they now have too much blood, too many donors. With less traffic, there are far fewer major trauma incidents as a result of car crashes. Normally blood donation centres always need more. It's a good situation to be in, but also unfortunate because it's going to eventually settle back to where it was before. Traffic where I am is almost back to normal.
- gordaco 6y agoI saw that photo a few days ago. It's honestly one of the most beautiful images I've ever seen in many years. That contrast between the city at the front and natural elements at the back, with that lighting (the Everest is at the north of Kathmandu, so it looks like a sunset), creates an incredible scene.
- PeterStuer 6y agoOver here (Belgium) in the second and third week of the (light) lockdown the color of the sky was a kind of warm blue I only remembered from childhood. I think it was due to the absence of daytime flights.
- vishwajeetv 6y agoIn my early childhood, I remember Mt. Everest was visible from our hotel suite when we visited Kathmandu. It was 1998.
- prepend 6y agoSnowbrains.com was registered on 2012-06-19, it has a very short living memory.
- legitster 6y agodeleted
- distant_hat 6y agoEither living memory is very short or there is something else going on. That region of the world did not industrialize until mid 20th century. The levels of pollution would be significantly lower than today even in the memories of older living people there.
- ddalex 6y agoOr was it because you had more time to slow down and look at the sky??
- Anka33 6y agoAll it cost was a total collapse of the western economic system... war is on the horizon.
- busymom0 6y agoFairly certain the "visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory" is false. Nagarkot village has been a well known tourist attraction for viewing the Everest clearly forever. > It is known for a sunrise view of the Himalayas including Mount Everest as well as other peaks of the Himalayan range of eastern Nepal. Nagarkot also offers a panoramic view of the Kathmandu Valley. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagarkot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagarkot
- perl4ever 6y agoOr perhaps the definition of Kathmandu being used was the one where it is 32 km west of Nagarkot?
- jokoon 6y agoThere were a lot of humor pictures on reddit about this. Things like "you can see X for the first time since Y". I'm suspecting it could be an astroturfing effort by the fossil fuels lobby, to try to discredit the real pictures. I guess I'm paranoid, but at least it shows I have little faith in the internet.
- dijit 6y agoHonestly, the amount that public discourse can be swayed by "meme makers" and other such things has left me very disillusioned. No doubt there are people who either have a marginal vested interest in denying this ("I love my truck/status quo/flights") and also normal people who are typically contrarian. -- these people can be easily swayed by people who have a financial investment in keeping things fossil friendly. I saw a video from Vox recently[0] where they have some people from 'knowyourmeme' making memes for the US democratic representative debates, it was eye opening. When you think of Memes you think of grassroots folks, people who just sit in their living room and think of something funny, make a low effort pop culture reference and then continue living their lives. You _don't_ imagine people sitting in boardrooms thinking up the best comedic caption that simultaneously promotes brands or ideas.. the concept feels absurd, yet, it happens. Now I'm completely jaded; I am immediately distrustful of comments or memes containing even subjects I agree with, I still have some form of trust in ordinary media because at least it's not as anonymous. [0]: https://www.vox.com/2019/11/1/20942599/glad-you-asked-episode-4-memes https://www.vox.com/2019/11/1/20942599/glad-you-asked-episod...
- dntbnmpls 6y agoVox is hardly a reliable source. It's as trustworthy as the memes that you fear.
- dijit 6y agoCitation please. Vox media has a left bias but is mostly factual[0]. And, like I said, at least their identity is tied to their statements, so if something is false it has the possibility of being called out, and you notice when they spew a lot of content with the same idea. You can't do a media bias fact check with memes. [0]: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/vox/ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/vox/
- growlist 6y agoWithin a few days of the lockdown I noticed how clear the air was (south coast UK). There's a hill 5 miles or so away with houses on the top that I can now make out individually, which wasn't the case before. Where are our (environmentally friendly) atmosphere processors? Even if we all switched to EVs, we'd still have tyre and brake dust being generated.
- beilabs 6y agoLads, this happened for a single day, it was lovely but is not a regular event. The city still has pollution issues however many now agree that it's caused from burnings that occur in northern India. I've lived here since the earthquake, have only seen Everest from my rooftop in the capital one single time. There are about 99% fewer vehicles on the road as we are in complete lockdown however the brick kilns that are located in the valley are probably the bigger polluters. Local neighbourhood garbage pickup guys regularly burn plastic.
- m463 6y agoI've been to mexico city a lot of times. One day I had to take a taxi at 6 am sunday morning after a hard rain the night before. The air have been cleaned by the rain and the sky was clear. And I noticed that the city was surrounded by these picturesqe mountain peaks (that I had never seen before, or since) I imagine you seeing the same thing.
- 7leafer 6y agoBirds are singing, dolphins are swimming into river deltas, the spring is cold and rainy, the sky is blue, the Earth is clear from them miserable humanoids - all for the first time in living memory. Even in the whole history! Hail Morona!
- dorfsmay 6y agoWell take a good hard look, because as economies are slowly re-opening, everybody is going back to their old habits, even worse like people wanting to stay away from public transport as pointed out in this thread (1). I see it locally, but it also has been measured in post-lock down China (2). [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23255270 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23255270 [2]: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-pollution/china-sees-post-lockdown-rise-in-air-pollution-study-idUSKBN22U09F https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-...
- parasdahal 6y agoI'm from Kathmandu and I can verify that getting to see Mount Everest from the city is a very very rare occasion. However, one can always see Everest on most days with clear skies from nearby hill stations, around 20km drive from the city center.
- jairofloress 6y agoWhy bitching people pollute so more than before? They entirely forget the whole point, for what? appear more clever, smarter. We all know the good and the bad of these times. Please focus on the good and if you can ignore the bad.
- ncmncm 6y agoI wonder whether the reduction in air pollution will save more lives than the virus itself costs. The answer will never be known, of course, both because the time horizon of pollution-related death is so different from that of the virus, and because the at-risk populations overlap so substantially. People with pollution-damaged lungs are much more likely to die from the virus, if they catch it.