Does conveyer belt of Everest summits help the climate change cause?

On the same day that Sir Ranulph Fiennes made it to the summit of Everest as the oldest Briton to do so, a much less famous summitteer broke a different record. Apa Sherpa has reached the summit for the 19th time, setting a new world record for the number of times someone has bagged the peak of all peaks.

Over the decades, since Apa started climbing the world's highest mountain, he has witnessed the impact of climate change on the landscape, people and wildlife at first hand. So after setting foot on the summit at 8,848m high, Apa unfurled a banner saying: "Stop Climate Change – Let the Himalayas Live!"

In 2005 WWF published a report claiming that Nepal has an annual average temperature rise of 0.06°C a year, resulting in the retreat of 67% of all Himalayan glaciers. The Rongbuk glacier, which runs down the north side of Mount Everest into Tibet, is retreating 65 feet a year. Some scientists estimate that they could all be gone within 25 years.

The increased runoff from the melting glaciers also threatens lives if glacial lakes burst their banks. Researchers estimate around 20 glacial lakes in Nepal are at risk of flooding populated areas initially. Then, after a couple of decades, as the ice vanishes, the water will start running dry for the many millions of people who rely on rivers such as the Ganges, Mekong and Yangtze — all fed by the Himalayas.

Tourism, and the associated carbon emissions, are also on the rise. Last year saw another record broken for the region with 374,661 tourists arriving in Nepal by air. Low-cost Indian airlines are also rapidly increasing flights into the region.

Although the success of Britain's most famous explorer received broad coverage, the Nepalese mountaineer's world record barely raised an eyebrow in the British media.

So what does sending a man barely known outside Kathmandu and mountaineering circles up the world's highest mountain achieve? Mark Wright, WWF's science adviser, says: "It's a call to arms for the whole world to act. The whole world won't be affected equally by climate change and the Himalayas will experience the worst of it. It keeps reminding people who hear so much already about climate change that it effects the lives of people who are least responsible for producing emissions but will bear the brunt.

"We can talk theoretically about climate change but it's already happening. The Khumbu glacier where Hillary and Tensing set off from [in 1953] has retreated by five kilometres and the implications of water availability in the region and across Asia are very serious."

In the run up to Copenhagen, are stunts like these really the best way to raise awareness about climate change?