On April 15, 2007, clean-up operations led by Japanese alpinist Ken Noguchi and Japanese actress Mayumi Wakamura were simultaneously carried out on Mt. Everest and Mt. Fuji, respectively. This was the second such activity, following the one on Mt. Manaslu of the Himalayas and Mt. Fuji in 2006.

The Everest party collected a total of 500 kilograms of trash, including about 50 kilograms from a base camp at an altitude of 5,170 meters and 120 kilograms from an advanced base camp at an altitude of 6,400 meters. The trash included cardboard boxes, cans, cookware and medical products. Meanwhile, 160 people participated in the operation on Mt. Fuji, gathering about three tons of trash, such as empty cans, used bottles and building materials.

Ken Noguchi is a mountaineer who entered the record books in 1999 when he, at the age of 25, became the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits, the highest peaks on each continent. Demonstrating his love of mountains, he made regular cleaning trips up Mt. Everest for four consecutive years beginning in 2000, and removed 7.7 tons of trash, including about 500 discarded oxygen containers. He said, "The amount of trash is steadily decreasing both on Mt. Fuji and Everest, but I hope that people will become more aware of environmental issues through this cleaning campaign."

http://www.noguchi-ken.com/index.html

Posted: 2007/10/01 02:59:51 PM
Japanese version

TAG Material reduction , NGO/Citizen