<
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/13/bhutan-holds-high-altitude-race-to-highlight-climate-dangers>
"Twenty-nine runners have set off on a rare high-altitude race in Bhutan to
highlight the dangers of climate change to the Himalayan kingdom sandwiched
between China and India, two of the world’s biggest polluters.
Bhutan, roughly the size of Switzerland, has forests covering 70 percent of its
land, which absorb nearly three times more climate-changing emissions than the
country produces a year.
“The race is designed to raise awareness about climate change and its risks to
our economy and the livelihood of the people,” Foreign Minister Tandi Dorji
told Reuters news agency on Thursday by telephone after flagging off the race
in the northwestern town of Gasa.
Organisers said the runners would take five days to complete the 203km (126
miles) Snowman Race from Gasa to the northeastern town of Chamkhar along a
trail that normally takes trekkers up to 20 days.
South Asia’s only carbon-negative country, with a population of fewer than
800,000 people, is vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which is
speeding up the melting of its glaciers and causing floods and unpredictable
weather patterns.
Pakistan, at the western end of the Himalayas, has this year been hit by
unprecedented flooding caused by unusually heavy rain and faster run-off from
its glaciers. Its government and the United Nations have blamed climate change.
The racers from 11 countries, including the United States, Germany, Japan,
Tanzania and Bhutan, will run at an average altitude of 4,500 metres (14,800
feet), with a high point of 5,470 metres (17,946 feet).
The route will take them through diverse terrain from sub-tropical jungles to
fragile, high-altitude ecosystems, with diverse flora and fauna, as well as
people and cultures."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
