Ngawang Nyaindrup, a 39-year-old lama of this world's highest monastery, sits in meditation, facing a range of snowy mountains.

This scene so much resembles that in Roland Emmerich-directed film "2012" -- two lamas, old and young, chatting while sipping butter tea in a monastery on top of Mt. Qomolangma.

Photo shows the poster of Roland Emmerich-directed film "2012." (Photo Source: Guangzhou Daily)

But in real life, ever more rapid ticking of the melting glaciers has worried Ngawang.

On the northern slope of Mt. Qomolangma, Ngawang used to see only mountaineers and scientific researchers in the past. But today, an increasing number of visitors, including tourists of different skin colors, mountain climbers and environmentists, have come and disturbed the peace.

What Ngawang disfavors in particular is not simply the boisterousness of the visitors, but their arriving here not on foot by driving vehicles of different sizes and powers. He considers the speeded-up melting of the glaciers on Mt. Qomolangma is caused mainly by the oil fuel of those vehicles.

His concerns not only lie in the rising snow line and retreating glaciers nearby, but in the severely-polluted Rongbo River as well.

Formed by melt-water from three major glaciers on northern Qomolangma, the Rongbo River used to be crystal-clear, with the flow changing regularly in seasons. Now, the contaminated river tends to be odd-tempered and its flow irregular. Besides, the weather is ever changing and unpredictable, often resulting in sudden heavy rains or hails within one day.

Photo shows the partially forzen Rongbo River. (Xinhua Photo)

What is worse, the river has become a typical example for scientists to prove that glaciers in the world are receding.

Four decades ago, about 100 million cubic meters of water from the end of the Rongbo Glaciers flew into the Rongbo River annually. Yet, today, the river looks turbulent and its surface has risen to reach over the knees. 

"No one told him the greenhouse gas discharged by burning fossil fuels has resulted in the global warming and caused the glaciers melt at a worrisome speed. However, Ngawang's perceive is quite correct," Zhong Yu, a female scinetist, affirmed the lama's scientific "sub-consciousness." 

Zhong has participated in the survey of Mt. Qomolangma and the Sanjiangyuan area for four times and met Ngawang two years ago. 

In July 2009, the two ran into each other again. "I felt his concern becoming bigger. He has repeatedly complained the winter there is more like summer and the snow line of the glaciers retreats faster," Zhong said, "what he worries about is the future of Mt. Qomolangma."

A report issued in April 2009 by the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, a NOG organization in Hong Kong, shows that during the 1998-2007 period, an average of 243 million people around the world became victims of natural disasters annually and the number is estimated to reach 375 million after 2015.

"In the past decade, I've seen fewer seracs but more collapsed hillsides following the disappearance of glaciers," Zhong said, "What we're losing is not the melting ice and snow, but our human's tomorrow." 

Every year, glaciers, frozen soils and lakes in the Himalayan-Tibetan zone supply 8.6 million cubic meters of fresh water to the Asian people.

"I went to Mt. Geladandong (northern Tibet's Nagqu Prefecture) for the first time in 1997. At that time, its snow line still kept halfway up the mountain, but this year only a little snow is indistinctly visible on its peak," Lhashi, a tour guide sighed.

Known as the summit of Mt. Tangula, Geladandong is the headwater of the Yangtze River. Since 1971, this area has experienced an increasingly higher temperature, with an average annual growth of 0.8 degree Centigrade.

Scientists predict glaciers in the area are likely to reduce by 6.9 percent as a result of climatic warming.

The Himalayas have the world's third largest glacier reserve of one trillion cubic meters in an area of 11,000 sq km.

But Sherpa, a Nepali who has scaled Mt. Qomolangma for 19 times, said early this year he noticed snow melted on Mt. Qomolangma at an altitude of more than 8,000 m.

He also said it is more difficult now to climb the world's summit from its southern slope mainly because the melt snow has made it harder to trudge up the former snow-covered road.