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Your pee is melting Mount Everest
Climbers visiting Mount Everest are leaving behind more than just footprints. A new study shows that human waste is melting the mountain's glaciers.
A climber standing on a snowy path at the Mount Everest base camp.
By John Doe
Reporting from Nepal 
Sept. 5, 2026, 7:51 p.m. - 11 hours ago
Mount Everest is in trouble, and it is partly because of all the people visiting it. Every year, thousands of climbers head to the mountain’s base camp. When they stay there, they have to use the bathroom.
Since there is no plumbing on the mountain, all that pee has to go somewhere. For a long time, it has just been dumped into the snow. Now, scientists say this is a big problem.
All that human pee—plus fuel used for cooking and heating—is changing the snow. It acts like a dark blanket on top of the ice. Because it is dark, it soaks up the sun's heat instead of reflecting it away. This makes the ice melt much faster than it should.
Mount Everest has become very crowded. With about 2,000 people passing through the base camp during the climbing season, the amount of waste is huge. It is melting the glacier beneath the camp, which makes the ground unstable and dangerous.
Experts say we need to find better ways to handle waste at high altitudes. If we don't, the beauty and safety of the world's tallest mountain could be lost.
Source: AOL.com
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