Nepal Holds Cabinet Meeting on Everest

Nepal’s cabinet held a chilly outdoor meeting on a Mount Everest plateau today, in a stunt to show their support for action on climate change. Sporting thick coats, wool, and in some cases oxygen masks, the cabinet set up shop at 17,192 feet, just next to an Everest base camp. There they approved a climate change resolution in a 20-minute meeting.

Three helicopters flew the roughly two dozen ministers up the mountain, along with medical teams and 40 oxygen cylinders. It was a major expenditure for Nepal, the world’s 12th-poorest nation, but the ministers said it was worth it. “The Everest declaration was a message to the world,” the prime minister told the Guardian. “The entire human civilization is faced with additional challenges for their survival.” Locals approved, saying they can clearly see the effects of climate change on Everest. (More Mount Everest stories.)