The Tibet Autonomous Regional Environmental Protection Agency plans to cooperate with the Tibet Mountaineering School in the first half of 2009 to to conduct a comprehensive clean-up of Everest, according to Zhang Yongze, Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Environmental Protection Agency.

All the garbage has been left behind by hikers and tourists. He explained that emerging tourism and mountaineering sports are having a negative impact on Everest's environment. It is necessary to tighten management, such as limit the number of mountain climbers and regulate legal business activites. Meanwhile, global warming is affecting the glaciers near Everest. Rongbuk Glacier, the largest Glacier inside of Everest's protected region, has shrunk by more than 150 meters over the past 10 years.

(People's Daily June 25, 2008)