Development on Past Articles

In this column, we report on significant developments and new ideas relating to articles which appeared in past issues of Himal..TENGBOCHE: WHAT WENT UP IN FLAMES? (Jan/Feb 1989)A Tengpoche Monastery Recon-struction Committee has been set up, with a predominantly Sherpa membership and headed by the Incarnate Lama Nawong Tenzin Jangpo. Also helping will be Sir Edmund Hillary, Zeke O´Cconor of the Hillary Foundation (Canada), Richard Blum of the American Himalayan Foundation, French alpinist Maurice Herzog, Guenther Strom of the Deutsche Alpine Club, and the Japan Alpine Club. An offer has aiso come from former United States President Jimmy Carter..Tengpoche went up in flames on 19 January, the result, it is believed, of an accident with an electrical appliance. According to Ang Tshering, the Committee´s honorary secretary, about U$l million will be required for the reconstruction of the monastery. He is confident that the amount will be raised. Already, 72 Sherpa households have collected NRs4 lakhs, Hillary has raised U$30,()00 (approximately NRs8 lakhs), and the Deutsche Alpine Club has given NRs2 lakhs..Because this is Lo Nag (Black Year), deemed inauspicious for certain activities, the reconstruction will begin next year. However, preparatory work will be begun this year, including the collection of stones, wood and other materials. It is expected that the building will be up within a year, but it may be another four years before the monastery attains its former state, with its interiors and artifacts restored or replaced. – KT Editor´s note: The Reconstruction Committee and the Incarnate Lama have indicated that "Tengpoche", with a "p" rather than "b" is the preferred spelling..ASAN: A MODEL FOR OTHERS (Nov/Dec 1988)Defying predictions that their cleanup effort would collapse, the businessmen of Asah market in downtown Kathmandu have con¬tinued to innovate. Their efforts have gone beyond sweeping up and have entered a marketing phase. The Bhotahity artery is now lit with five sodium vapour lamps, bought from the Nepal Electricity Authority at below cost price. Customers now take home their purchases in white polythene shopping bags that carry the Bhotahity Bazaar Samiti´s logo and advertisement. The Solid Waste Management and Resource Mobilization Centre provides wages for a cleanup staff of five. The Committee expects soon to install telephone booths for local and international calls. One kitchen garbage tin is being provided experimentally to each of 150 households in the area to see what they do with it. The Asan merchants have even decided to provide "foreign aid". They recently donated a load of red buckets to the town of Surkhet in the far west Nepal. The Asan bug is catching, it seems. It is reported that the merchants in the Kathmandu downtown tourist hub of Thamel have also decided to organize like the BBS style. – RB. OZONE HOLE OVER HIMALAYA? (JULY 1988) It is now widely accepted by scientists that the controls imposed by the 1987 Montreal Protocols on colorofluorocarbons (CFCs) will still allow a drastic worsening of the problem of depleting atmospheric ozone. They have therefore called for a complete phaseout of CFCs by the end of the century, ratheT than the 50 per cent cut mandated at Montreal. In late April, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) declared its support for such an accelerated phaseout. While CFCs have been viewed as contributing the largest share of ozone depleting ctvrlorine in the upper atmosphere, some experts are saying that restoration of stratospheric chlorine will require not only a CFC ban, but also phaseouts of two other industrial chemicals: carbon tetrachloride and methyl chloroform. Meanwhile, a Conference on Global Warming and Climate Change was held in New Delhi in late February, the first of its kind to address the particular concerns of developing countries. The conference termed global warming as "the greatest crisis ever faced collectively by humankind", and cautioned that "climatic changes of geological proportions are occurring over timespans as short as a single human lifespan". The participants concluded that while the great bulk of past and present cmmissions of greenhouse gases which led to global warming have come from the highly industrial nations, many of the most serious effects of global climate change would most likely occur in the developing countries. This was because developing countries were many times more dependent on natural resources and natural systems (crops, grazing lands, forests, fisheries, monsoon patterns) which are heavily affected by climate change. The poorer countries lacked the financial and technical resources to make the expensive and difficult changes that adapting to climate change would require. Also, climate disruption which reduced agricultural production in food exporting developed countries might lead to serious threat to global food security. The Conference participants stated that the primary responsibility for reducing use of fossil fuels and CFCs lay with the industrial countries. Developing countries must respond to the "greenhouse challenge" in a way that enhanced, rather than diminished, development prospects. "Where these arc in conflict, priority should be given to development." Having cause the major share of the problem and possessing the resources to do something about it, the industrial countries must assist the developing countries in finding and financing appropriate responses. The response of the developing countries should be in the areas of improving energy efficiency, pioneering renewable energy use, halting deforestation and slowing population growth. The Conference recomended that each country establish a National Climate Monitoring, Research and Management Board. Regional bodies such as SAARC and ASEAN could then set up regional boards, comprising of Chairman of the National Boards. – KMD