U.S. PhD Student Labeled a “Spy” for Her Himalayan Cameras
By Michael Frank on February 6th, 2013
Ulyana Horodyskyj, left, a geologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, placed time-lapse video cameras at roughly 4,800 meters in the Himalayas starting in 2011. What she found startled her. The glaciers were melting at a much faster rate than predicted, and scientists around the world have been studying her findings. But her research cameras apparently were mistaken as tools of spying; the Nepalese authorities say they were pointed at China and that she was taking surveillance footage, resulting in somebody (it’s still not clear who) confiscating the equipment. The claim, for anyone who’s seen camera-trap footage, is totally absurd. China is 30 miles away…and across an entire mountain range. Lost in the fray: Horodyskyj was using the project to help launch a Sherpa-Scientist Initiative, an effort to empower local people to monitor the glaciers that are so integral to their lives. Via Scientific American.
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Sounds a lot like the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) that’s documented in the REALLY WELL DONE documentary “Chasing Ice”. Hope she gets her equipment back, as this is a great way to convince climate change skeptics of the reality and dangers of global warming.