China Youth Daily yesterday?published a story
questioning the necessity of carrying the Olympic torch to the
world's highest peak, saying the action is largely symbolic.
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One of the key themes of the "People's Olympics" is security,
the article emphasized.
While acknowledging that taking the Olympic flame to the globe's
highest point had a powerful symbolic charge, the article pointed
out that climbing Mount Qomolangma is very dangerous.
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It said that 2,249 mountaineers had scaled the world's highest
peak by 2004, but 186 had lost their lives. During the first half
of 2006, 100 people tried to climb the mountain and 11 of them
died.
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It will be extremely difficult to carry the Olympic torch over
the peak and shoot the entire proceedings for live broadcast, the
article said.?
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The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games on Tuesday (BOCOG) announced
earlier that a rehearsal for next year's Olympic torch relay over
Mount Qomolangma would take place at a safe period this year and
that weather conditions would be taken into account.
The torch is expected to reach the summit of Qomolangma from the
southern slope and will then be carried down the northern slope,
and the process will be televised, according to BOCOG.
The article queried the potential impact on the mountain
environment.
About 50 tons of plastic, glass and metal garbage were dumped on
Qomolangma between the 1950s and 1990s. Mountaineers have cleared
out seven tons of trash and more than 400 oxygen tanks from the
mountain since 2000, it said.
A geologist team funded by the United Nations Environment
Program found clear signs of terrain change and glacier retreat on
Qomolangma at the beginning of the year, it said.
Some experts have blamed the environmental changes partly on the
increase of tourists and mountaineers to the area.
Taking modern equipment up the mountain for the televised torch
burning broadcast is likely to result in greater pollution, the
article argued.
Earlier reports said that the torch is specifically designed to
burn at a high altitude.
Beijing promised in its Olympic bid that the Olympic flame would
crest the world's highest peak.
(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2007)
