To climb Mt. Everest, clean Mt. Everest (audio)

Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Siobhan Wornell, Jonathan Kealing, Global Scan (PRI)

Mount Everest as seen from a Drukair flight (Shrimpo1967/pri.org)

  

Mt. Everest (peterwestcarey/flickr.com)

Climbers who want to summit Mount Everest, pictured from the south, looking north, will now have to help clean up the mountain, too. 

 

The government of Nepal is taking action against the impact of tourism on Mount Everest -- [allegedly] the tallest, and probably most famous, mountain in the world.
 

Starting in April, climbers ascending beyond base camp will be required to bring back eight kilograms (more than 17 pounds) of garbage -- or officials may fine them. This rubbish does not include each climber's own personal garbage generated during the course of their climb, according to The Guardian newspaper.

 

No respect for Sherpas or mountains

Years of expeditions have left the mountain littered with refuse, such as abandoned oxygen cylinders and human waste. There are already measures in place to try and curb the environmental toll, such as a refundable $4,000 deposit that is returned when climbers prove they have carried out all of the trash they brought in -- but enforcement is proving difficult. More

• VIDEO: Tyler, 9, and Sherpa scale tallest peak (preceded by a 7-year-old Incan boy
• VIDEO: View from the Top of the World
• On drugs and lost in the mountains)
• 13-year-old tries to climb Mt. Everest

"Invisible Young" - White, homeless kids in USA

Seth Auberon, Dev, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Steven Keller (invisibleyoung.com, differentialfilms.com); Pasadena Area Liberal Arts Center (PALAC), Throop UU Church

What I do is never shower: If I stink, I won't get raped. Hungry? Go to the dumpster; dive in.

SEATTLE, Washington, USA - Dumpsters are their cafeterias. Trash bins are their supply stores. If they're lucky they can find enough cardboard for some warmth and a temporary makeshift shelter. The homeless young in Seattle have found ways to survive.
 

I'm trying to get away from all this.

Documentarian Steven Keller has lived outside Seattle for over ten years. Like most Americans, however, he didn't really see homeless youths he encountered. They become invisible. When he did see them he asked, Why?

What did the system do to protect me?

Eighteen months later "Invisible Young" was completed. In it Keller answers the most compelling question of all, "How does a 13-year-old end up on the streets of a prosperous country?" In his film he focuses on the riveting stories of four youths who were homeless in Seattle, in the great Pacific Northwest of the USA. Synopsis

• The potheads of Denver: smoking and driving 
• Hard labor: women pregnant in the fields (Nepal)

Can you spare some change for an all-American girl, mister?