Abstract

Reaching almost nine kilometers (29,000 feet) up into the sky, Mount Everest is the tallest and most famous mountain in the world. It belongs to a mountain chain called the Himalayas, which sits on the border of several countries in Southeast Asia.

We carried out a study looking at the climate of the Himalayas, a neighbouring mountain range (the Karakoram), and the Tibetan Plateau. We used data from climate models to investigate temperature changes and their relationship to altitude (height above sea level).

We found that higher altitudes experienced greater rates of warming and that the rate of warming is likely to further increase by the end of this century. This could have serious consequences for people around the world.