
Mount Everest is visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory - ProAm
https://snowbrains.com/everest-visible-kathmandu-nepal-first-time/
======
elcapitan
Hm, is this actually true? According to this travel site, it was already
possible before Corona? [https://www.nestadventure.com/blog/mount-everest-
from-kathma...](https://www.nestadventure.com/blog/mount-everest-from-
kathmandu/)

"Contrary to everyone’s belief, Mount Everest can actually be seen from
Kathmandu. The Chandragiri hills in Kathmandu offer a panoramic view of the
Himalayan ranges and Mount Everest on a clear day. There are also viewpoints
and hill stations just outside Kathmandu – Daman, Nagarjun and Nagarkot where
the mountains are visible."

~~~
remus
The 'living memory' claim seems a bit far fetched, too. Let's pretend living
memory means the last 100 years, that'd mean air pollution levels in 1920 wee
so poor you couldn't see Everest from Kathmandu. I'm no expert, but I don't
think Nepal and the surrounding area of China were industrialised at that
time, and there definitely weren't many vehicles on the road at the time, so
where would the air pollution have come from?

~~~
idiocratic
Been to Kathmandu several times and I wouldn't say Nepal is industrialised in
general, but not even remotely at the level of China. What makes the air
really bad in Kathmandu is the amount of old trucks and buses on the very
dusty streets of the city. It's a different kind of air pollution to what you
might experience in an industrialised nation. When I'm there I always wear a
mask, otherwise a cough will develop almost for sure in a few hours. If you go
a little bit outside of the city the air is very clean and the views are
amazing.

~~~
smcl
Were there many of these old trucks and buses around in Kathmandu in the
1920s?

~~~
serf
no, but it was still a sprawling metropolis, one assumes there was a lot of
wood and coal burning going on.

Here's a picture from Kathmandu in 1920. It appears to have poor visibility,
but it's unclear from the picture whether or not that is pollution or weather.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kathmandu_Basantapur_Du...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kathmandu_Basantapur_Durbar_Square_in_1920.jpg)

here's another near the same period that shows similar levels of visibility:

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Kathmand...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Kathmandu_and_tundikhel_ca_1920.jpg)

~~~
rezeroed
"Here's a picture from Kathmandu in 1920. It appears to have poor visibility,
but it's unclear from the picture whether or not that is pollution or
weather."

You don't think it's the quality of a 1920 photograph?

------
RcouF1uZ4gsC
> Many of our COPD patients who need regular follow-up haven’t shown up
> because their symptoms have eased. Some have called to say they don’t
> require oxygen therapy anymore.”

If this is at all similar to the experience in the US, while some people may
have seen their symptoms improve, a lot of people are avoiding doctors and
hospitals out of fear of getting COVID, and are skipping out on routine
checkups and care.

~~~
TeMPOraL
COPD + COVID sounds like a death sentence, so if I suffered from it, I too
would avoid hospitals (and anyone else) like the literal plague.

~~~
acslater00
I can't speak for COPD but I'm very familiar with a different chronic
pulmonary disease (Cystic Fibrosis), and it seems to _strangely_ not be a huge
risk factor for poor COVID outcomes.

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S156919932...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569199320301259)

No one really has a good story for why (and it may not hold) but it seems to
be consistent with the idea that the most important variable is truly just
age.

~~~
411111111111111
Last study I read put a 99% correlation on vitamin d deficiency and getting a
severe case of covid19. Which was significantly more than age correlated on
the same dataset.

~~~
valesco
Interesting, however I wonder how they accounted for the fact that most
everyone is deficient in vitamin d.

~~~
jusssi
So you made me curious and I googled. Not quite most everyone, it rather seems
to be regional: under 20% in Northern Europe, 30-60% in rest of Europe, up to
80% in Middle East.

Source:
[https://eje.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/eje/180/4/EJE-1...](https://eje.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/eje/180/4/EJE-18-0736.xml)

~~~
duncanawoods
Huh, weird. I would have assumed deficiency would be inversely proportional to
amount of sunshine. Do people in northern europe really experience so much
more “sun on skin” time or is it wholly diet driven?

~~~
icebraining
From that link:

> The generally adequate vitamin D status in the Nordic countries is due to
> the use of cod liver oil and supplements (46) and vitamin D fortification,
> leading to a great improvement in Finland during the last decade (47).

Doesn't surprise me; here in the South we don't get deficient enough to cause
obvious issues, so we don't pay attention to it.

~~~
selimthegrim
Are you African-American? (Assuming you mean Southern US)

~~~
icebraining
Southern Europe :)

------
beilabs
Lads, this happened for a single day, it was lovely but is not a regular
event. The city still has pollution issues however many now agree that it's
caused from burnings that occur in northern India.

I've lived here since the earthquake, have only seen Everest from my rooftop
in the capital one single time.

There are about 99% fewer vehicles on the road as we are in complete lockdown
however the brick kilns that are located in the valley are probably the bigger
polluters. Local neighbourhood garbage pickup guys regularly burn plastic.

~~~
m463
I've been to mexico city a lot of times. One day I had to take a taxi at 6 am
sunday morning after a hard rain the night before.

The air have been cleaned by the rain and the sky was clear. And I noticed
that the city was surrounded by these picturesqe mountain peaks (that I had
never seen before, or since)

I imagine you seeing the same thing.

------
acslater00
It's amazing and wonderful how much environmental damage seems to be
recovering. Air pollution is down, carbon emissions are down as much as 17%,
fish and sharks are repopulating shorelines and beaches - and to think, all it
took was the most severe public health crisis in 100 years, a catastrophic
global recession, and an overpowering wave of human misery and death

~~~
orion_mc2
Imagine - what will happen when next big virus/bacteria pandemic hits the
earth...Other species will stand a chance when human population makes some
room ...it probably sounds bad but unfortunately the humans are the problem -
not the CO2 or something else (they are just consequence) - proof is how
nature thrives around Chernobyl

~~~
Glavnokoman
Yep. It is a shame that "intelligent" species need a virus or some other
disastra and are unable to keep their population within the limits.

------
olivermarks
Longer term Covid19 is very bad for public transport. People are gravitating
back to owning their own germ free vehicles

Time to buy a car? Industry hopes for coronavirus silver lining | Free to read
[https://www.ft.com/content/488d5886-c6af-4e80-a479-36aca26ed...](https://www.ft.com/content/488d5886-c6af-4e80-a479-36aca26edd1d)

~~~
iainmerrick
Though hopefully using them less, at least?

If you’re sufficiently worried about COVID to switch from public transport to
a car, why would you use it to travel into an office every day?

~~~
rcMgD2BwE72F
Because, for most employees, this decision is not theirs, and they need their
salary to survive?

------
vishwajeetv
In my early childhood, I remember Mt. Everest was visible from our hotel suite
when we visited Kathmandu. It was 1998.

~~~
prepend
Snowbrains.com was registered on 2012-06-19, it has a very short living
memory.

------
busymom0
Fairly certain the "visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory" is
false. Nagarkot village has been a well known tourist attraction for viewing
the Everest clearly forever.

> It is known for a sunrise view of the Himalayas including Mount Everest as
> well as other peaks of the Himalayan range of eastern Nepal. Nagarkot also
> offers a panoramic view of the Kathmandu Valley.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagarkot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagarkot)

~~~
perl4ever
Or perhaps the definition of Kathmandu being used was the one where it is 32
km west of Nagarkot?

------
adelpozo
Any chance to see a “before” picture? I searched without success. Or is that
kind of the point?

~~~
mkl
I think that's the point! I found some possible candidates on Google Street
View (which only has isolated spots):

From Chobhar in March 2019, facing Everest:
[https://www.google.com/maps/@27.6541403,85.2796492,3a,75y,78...](https://www.google.com/maps/@27.6541403,85.2796492,3a,75y,78.31h,101.37t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipP6gyL_odLZG2K89Er6AtpuxJwaT300-z8WkTKv!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP6gyL_odLZG2K89Er6AtpuxJwaT300-z8WkTKv%3Dw203-h100-k-no-
pi-20-ya68-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352)

Elsewhere in Kathmandu in April 2020, facing Everest:
[https://www.google.com/maps/@27.6745306,85.3249687,3a,75y,59...](https://www.google.com/maps/@27.6745306,85.3249687,3a,75y,59.36h,92.03t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNk_FgppdLN2WTnmLj0-xGO4IwFI6UYFx5jqlBD!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNk_FgppdLN2WTnmLj0-xGO4IwFI6UYFx5jqlBD%3Dw203-h100-k-no-
pi0-ya306.86493-ro-0-fo100!7i9000!8i4500)

There's no hope of seeing that far through the haze.

~~~
pvg
It looks like if you get out of the valley itself, you can see Everest from a
nearby hill on which there's a viewing platform of some sort.

[http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1016837.shtml](http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1016837.shtml)

------
PeterStuer
Over here (Belgium) in the second and third week of the (light) lockdown the
color of the sky was a kind of warm blue I only remembered from childhood. I
think it was due to the absence of daytime flights.

------
dorfsmay
Well take a good hard look, because as economies are slowly re-opening,
everybody is going back to their old habits, even worse like people wanting to
stay away from public transport as pointed out in this thread (1). I see it
locally, but it also has been measured in post-lock down China (2).

[1]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23255270](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23255270)

[2]: [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-
china-...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-
pollution/china-sees-post-lockdown-rise-in-air-pollution-study-idUSKBN22U09F)

------
gordaco
I saw that photo a few days ago. It's honestly one of the most beautiful
images I've ever seen in many years. That contrast between the city at the
front and natural elements at the back, with that lighting (the Everest is at
the north of Kathmandu, so it looks like a sunset), creates an incredible
scene.

------
growlist
Within a few days of the lockdown I noticed how clear the air was (south coast
UK). There's a hill 5 miles or so away with houses on the top that I can now
make out individually, which wasn't the case before. Where are our
(environmentally friendly) atmosphere processors? Even if we all switched to
EVs, we'd still have tyre and brake dust being generated.

------
jokoon
There were a lot of humor pictures on reddit about this. Things like "you can
see X for the first time since Y".

I'm suspecting it could be an astroturfing effort by the fossil fuels lobby,
to try to discredit the real pictures. I guess I'm paranoid, but at least it
shows I have little faith in the internet.

~~~
dijit
Honestly, the amount that public discourse can be swayed by "meme makers" and
other such things has left me very disillusioned.

No doubt there are people who either have a marginal vested interest in
denying this ("I love my truck/status quo/flights") and also normal people who
are typically contrarian. -- these people can be easily swayed by people who
have a financial investment in keeping things fossil friendly.

I saw a video from Vox recently[0] where they have some people from
'knowyourmeme' making memes for the US democratic representative debates, it
was eye opening.

When you think of Memes you think of grassroots folks, people who just sit in
their living room and think of something funny, make a low effort pop culture
reference and then continue living their lives. You _don't_ imagine people
sitting in boardrooms thinking up the best comedic caption that simultaneously
promotes brands or ideas.. the concept feels absurd, yet, it happens.

Now I'm completely jaded; I am immediately distrustful of comments or memes
containing even subjects I agree with, I still have some form of trust in
ordinary media because at least it's not as anonymous.

[0]: [https://www.vox.com/2019/11/1/20942599/glad-you-asked-
episod...](https://www.vox.com/2019/11/1/20942599/glad-you-asked-
episode-4-memes)

~~~
dntbnmpls
Vox is hardly a reliable source. It's as trustworthy as the memes that you
fear.

~~~
dijit
Citation please.

Vox media has a left bias but is mostly factual[0].

And, like I said, at least their identity is tied to their statements, so if
something is false it has the possibility of being called out, and you notice
when they spew a lot of content with the same idea.

You can't do a media bias fact check with memes.

[0]:
[https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/vox/](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/vox/)

~~~
dntbnmpls
> Citation please.

"Vox media has a left bias...".

> And, like I said, at least their identity is tied to their statements

Right. So you know that they are not reliable and untrustworthy.

> You can't do a media bias fact check with memes.

Sure you can. Just like you can for any media.

> [0]:
> [https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/vox/](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/vox/)

Mediabiasfactcheck, snope, etc are even more untrustworthy than vox. This is
the circular joke that the media is. Since nobody trusts them, they create
"fact checkers" to create an illusion of objectivity. They'd be better off
creating another award named after a fake news king like Pulitzer.

Let me guess you think foxnews is the bastion of truth?

~~~
dijit
I think you're proving my point here a little bit.

Fox News have an identity tied to their media output, therefore if they
consistently put out bad faith or incorrect representations of information
then they will be identified and mentally blacklisted.

Fox News in particular has a wikipedia page dedicated to it[0]

The idea that "Snopes and media fact check are biased and inaccurate" is
bordering on the insane.

If you can't trust the media _and_ you can't trust the people who keep an eye
on the media, who can you trust?

Deplatforming all media sources and those that seek to keep them in check just
leaves you vulnerable to people who do not identify themselves feeding you
biased information.

I don't trust myself, I can apply some amount of critical thinking to new
information as it is presented but I can't be everywhere at once nor can I be
an expert on all things. If you depose all your information sources you will
be left with information coming from unofficial sources, and that is not
better because "unofficial" generally just means "unaccountable".

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News_controversies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News_controversies)

~~~
dntbnmpls
> Fox News have an identity tied to their media output, therefore if they
> consistently put out bad faith or incorrect representations of information
> then they will be identified and mentally blacklisted.

Just like vox.

> Fox News in particular has a wikipedia page dedicated to it[0]

Right and you can write a wiki article for vox and every other media outlet as
well.

> The idea that "Snopes and media fact check are biased and inaccurate" is
> bordering on the insane.

No. You are right. They are unbiased. There are also, right-leaning fact
checkers as well. Are they unbiased?

> If you can't trust the media _and_ you can't trust the people who keep an
> eye on the media, who can you trust?

Yourself. That's it and your ability to reason. Your ability to see vox,
foxnews, nytimes, wapo, cnn, etc as propaganda sites and decipher the
propaganda as best as you can.

> Deplatforming all media sources and those that seek to keep them in check
> just leaves you vulnerable to people who do not identify themselves feeding
> you biased information.

Your vox mentality is showing. Who is talking about deplatforming anyone? I'm
pro-free speech and pro-free press. I don't want anyone deplatformed or
censored. Oddly, the biggest champions of deplatforming are vox, cnn and most
likely your favorite "news" sources.

> I don't trust myself, I can apply some amount of critical thinking to new
> information as it is presented but I can't be everywhere at once nor can I
> be an expert on all things.

Nobody at vox is an expert at anything. That much you can be absolutely sure
about.

> If you depose all your information sources you will be left with information
> coming from unofficial sources, and that is not better because "unofficial"
> generally just means "unaccountable".

Actually, the authoritative/official sources are unaccountable as they have
all the power. The "official" sources have started wars with their lies and
led to millions of innocent people's deaths. Do they get held accountable? No,
they get shifted to other "authoritative/official" sources like pedophiles
priests get shifted to other diocese.

It's amazing how oblivious you are. You do realize that fox news is an
"authoritative/official" source.

~~~
dijit
I listen to a lot of news sources.

I can’t even respond to this, I can’t get a beat on any critical argument of
any kind. Other than “ You are lefty”, which, depending on who you ask I seem
to flip between right and left. Someone once called me a dirty centrist fence
sitter. So, I don’t understand this weird political divide everyone seems to
identify themselves with.

I don’t know what to tell you, this comment makes me genuinely concerned for
your mental wellbeing.

~~~
dntbnmpls
> I listen to a lot of news sources.

I'm sure you do. Vox, buzzfeed, cnn, msnbc, nytimes, etc? Tell me I'm wrong.

> Other than “ You are lefty”

You got that from my criticism of fox news?

> Someone once called me a dirty centrist fence sitter.

Yes, I found that's what extremist leftists call less extremist leftists. It's
a terrible form of bullying bent on enforcing conformity.

> I don’t know what to tell you, this comment makes me genuinely concerned for
> your mental wellbeing.

People like you are so obvious. You try to hide and conceal yourself but you
just can't help yourself. Surprised you didn't start your reply with "I'm not
a ..., but ... ". Oh wait but you did, sneakily.

------
distant_hat
Either living memory is very short or there is something else going on. That
region of the world did not industrialize until mid 20th century. The levels
of pollution would be significantly lower than today even in the memories of
older living people there.

~~~
ddalex
Or was it because you had more time to slow down and look at the sky??

------
parasdahal
I'm from Kathmandu and I can verify that getting to see Mount Everest from the
city is a very very rare occasion. However, one can always see Everest on most
days with clear skies from nearby hill stations, around 20km drive from the
city center.

------
BLKNSLVR
I'm hoping this is a significantly sized piece of the puzzle in the proof
against the 'us puny humans can't affect something as large as the earth's
atmosphere' climate denial argument.

Since the lockdowns the horizon where I live has no brown haze smeared over,
and it's not even a significantly sized city (population ~1.5 million), but
the lack of haze is noticeable. The presence of the brown smear haze was
actually one of the things that made real scale of the effect humanity has on
the quality and content of the air that enters our lungs.

~~~
lostlogin
The lack of rubbish on the streets, quiet nights, quiet streets, families out
walking/biking and increased bird numbers nearby have been great. Being a
lockdown enthusiast is probably a bit much, but I’ll miss aspects of it.

------
ncmncm
I wonder whether the reduction in air pollution will save more lives than the
virus itself costs.

The answer will never be known, of course, both because the time horizon of
pollution-related death is so different from that of the virus, and because
the at-risk populations overlap so substantially. People with pollution-
damaged lungs are much more likely to die from the virus, if they catch it.

------
7leafer
Birds are singing, dolphins are swimming into river deltas, the spring is cold
and rainy, the sky is blue, the Earth is clear from them miserable humanoids -
all for the first time in living memory. Even in the whole history! Hail
Morona!

------
jairofloress
Why bitching people pollute so more than before? They entirely forget the
whole point, for what? appear more clever, smarter. We all know the good and
the bad of these times. Please focus on the good and if you can ignore the
bad.

------
monkeywork
I wonder how far back (if any) the lockdown pushed the doom clock around
global climate change?

~~~
Lapland
Here's an article that's a bit more in-depth on the effects
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0797-x](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0797-x)

------
legitster
deleted

~~~
hobofan
Wrong thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23246672](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23246672)

~~~
legitster
Haha! What I get for too many tabs open.

------
mmaunder
This is why we need less humans on this planet. No one says that, because
having as many kids as you like seems to be considered a basic human right.
But imagine Earth with a stable 10% of our current population. Clean,
abundant, and without the catastrophic extinction event already underway.

~~~
gonzo41
So you're taking steps and not having children then?

~~~
mmaunder
Correct. I’m 46 years old, healthy, fertile, heterosexual and I don’t have any
kids. How about you?

~~~
mmaunder
And there it is. A sudden torrent of downvotes. Dropped from 4 to zero in
seconds. Like is said, having kids is considered a basic human right. We’re so
arrogant, yet so basic as a species.

~~~
aSplash0fDerp
Yeah. Some folks need to grow another mouth to tell themselves what they wanna
hear.

Not being status quo is probably a bit too much for them.

The exchange of opinions concept does work well for most though.

~~~
alehander42
isn't this is a very simplistic view on having children? There are much more
obvious reasons to have some. also, .. most of use have enough mouths to tell
them what they wanna hear, including you and me and our supposed echo chambers
all over the internet (yes, having children is egoistical and naive! you're
right aSplash0fDerp man! .. yes, we will overcome those problems, children are
our duty, you're right alehander42 ! )

~~~
aSplash0fDerp
Why some people want a trophy for ejaculating in a vagina, I will never know.

With the popularity of brainwashing and groupthink, talking out of someone
elses butt should be considered an evolution of ventriloquism.

Its a neat trick if you don`t get out much.

~~~
alehander42
having a child might be more meaningful than the whole world, I love you,
mate!

~~~
aSplash0fDerp
I'm in the states, but using your "mate" reference as a cue... I'm currently
looking at Austrailia to settle down and raise a family.

I think the opportunity to find a young lady with natural resilience is much
higher in AU. Using Mick Jagger as an example, we can populate the planet well
into our 70's, so unless you age like a fried turd, there is no hurry.

------
Lidador
This proves Earth is flat!

~~~
happppy
so why am I only able to see the tip and not the whole mountain?

~~~
withinboredom
A flat earther will probably argue that it must mean that the height of Mount
Everest is a conspiracy since it's clearly the same height as a regular
mountain.

------
nodesocket
Perhaps I am being very skeptical, but I am failing to understand how three
months of lockdown all the sudden eliminates decades of pollution. Something
does not add uphere.

~~~
chipperyman573
Mostly a severe reduction in air travel (airplane fuel is really really really
bad for the environment)

~~~
mvid
Unlikely. Usually mostly due to agricultural burning and motor vehicles.

~~~
catalogia
Road vehicles and agricultural vehicles have both been using ULSD for the past
10 or so years in America, and it's my impression that this is common
elsewhere in the developed world too. ULSD has two orders of magnitude less
sulfur than common jet fuel.

~~~
iguy
Kathmandu is far from this, by the way. IIRC a major component of the smog was
from smugglers adulterating the fuel, e.g. adding kerosene to gasoline.

