In this May 27, 2019, file photo, a bird flies with Mount Everest seen in the background from Namche Bajar, Solukhumbu district, Nepal. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha, File)
By Binaj Gurubacharya
China and Nepal jointly announced a new official height for Mount Everest on Tuesday, ending a discrepancy between the two nations.
The new height of the world's highest peak is 8,848.86 meters (29,031.7 feet), which is slightly more than Nepal’s previous measurement and about four meters (13 feet) higher than China’s.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Nepalese counterpart, Pradeep Gyawali, simultaneously pressed buttons during a virtual conference and the new height flashed on the screen.
The height of Everest, which is on the border between China and Nepal, was agreed on after surveyors from Nepal scaled the peak in 2019 and a Chinese team did the same in 2020.
There had been debate over the actual height of the peak and concern that it might have shrunk after a major earthquake in 2015. The quake killed 9,000 people, damaged about 1 million structures in Nepal and triggered an avalanche on Everest that killed 19 people at the base camp.
There was no doubt that Everest would remain the highest peak because the second highest, Mount K2, is only 8,611 meters (28,244 feet) tall.
Everest's height was first determined by a British team around 1856 as 8,842 meters (29,002) feet.
But the most accepted height has been 8,848 meters (29,028 feet), which was determined by the Survey of India in 1954.
In 1999, a National Geographic Society team using GPS technology came up with a height of 8,850 (29,035 feet). A Chinese team in 2005 said it was 8,844.43 meters (29,009 feet) because it did not include the snow cap.
A Nepal government team of climbers and surveyors scaled Everest in May 2019 and installed GPS and satellite equipment to measure the peak and snow depth on the summit.
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Nepal later that year and the leaders of the two countries decided that they should agree on a height.
A survey team from China then conducted measurements in the spring of 2020 while all other expeditions were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Nepal's climbing community welcomed the end of confusion over the mountain's height.
“This is a milestone in mountaineering history which will finally end the debate over the height and now the world will have one number,” said Santa Bir Lama, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.
China's official Xinhua New Agency quoted Xi as saying the two sides are committed to jointly protecting the environment around Everest and cooperating in scientific research.
For China, the announcement appeared to be as much about politics as geography. China has drawn Nepal ever closer into its orbit with investments in its economy and the building of highways, dams, airports and other infrastructure in the impoverished nation.
That appears to serve China’s interests in reducing the influence of rival India, with which it shares a disputed border, and Nepal’s role as a destination for refugee Tibetans.
The Xinhua report said nothing about the technical aspects but heavily emphasized the joint announcement’s geopolitical weight.
China and Nepal will establish an “even closer community of a shared future to enrich the countries and their peoples,” Xinhua quoted Xi as saying.
In a nearly 3,700 page UN report, climate scientists outline the imminent dangers caused by climate change, saying fossil fuels are 'choking humanity.' The report calls some of the impacts of global warming 'irreversible,' warning of extreme consequences in the near future. Kristie L. Ebi, Professor of Global Health and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
World leaders are currently dealing with a handful of pressing issues, including Russia's invasion of Ukraine, inflation, and not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic; but it could be argued that the most pressing issue is one that has experienced its fair share of neglect in the past -- climate change. As tensions escalate between Russia and Ukraine, there is fear the focus on climate will once again be pushed aside. However, the White House appears to be making some effort to prevent that from happening. The White House Office of Science and Technology held a first-of-its-kind roundtable discussion with some of the nation's leading climate scientists on Thursday. Michael Mann, Director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, and author of the book 'The New Climate War' joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss his experience as one of the climate scientists at the White House event.
On December 25, 2021, NASA got into the holiday spirit by launching the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful space science observatory in history.
It is intended to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA's flagship mission in astrophysics and is able to view objects too old and distant for Hubble. Gregory Robinson, director of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope program, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the mission. "I think a lot of what we don't know today is what I'm expecting to find and certainly really understand what took place more than 13.5 billion years ago and see the formation of some of the first galaxies in our universe," said Robinson.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted blood donations leading to severe shortages throughout the country. Chloe Aiello reports on the desperate need for new donors.
GSK has unveiled its new consumer health unit called Haelon. Haleon will debut as a standalone company later this year. Katie Williams, U.S. chief marketing officer at GSK, joined Cheddar News to discuss.
Even amid the Great Resignation, the cannabis industry saw major job growth. As of January 2022, the legal industry supported more than 428,000 jobs — a 33 percent increase year-over-year, according to the sixth annual jobs report from Leafly, a website focused on cannabis use and education. Yoko Miyashita, CEO of Leafly, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss. “You know we've got big moments coming ahead in New Jersey and New York with adult-use sales starting in New Jersey, hopefully by this fall, with New York quickly to follow," she said. "So we're hugely optimistic about the kind of job growth that those markets can drive with the right type of market setup.
DNA evidence now shows that the 500-pound black bear the public had nicknamed “Hank the Tank” is, in fact, three not-so-little bears who have damaged more than 30 properties around Lake Tahoe in recent months.
The Biden administration will significantly loosen federal mask-wearing guidelines to protect against COVID-19 transmission on Friday, according to two people familiar with the matter.
