I agree that there are flaws regarding the way in which the committe has carried out its regulations, but what you, the author of this article, needs to udnersatnd is that firewood is NOT prohibited in the Sagarmatha area because it pollutes. The rule was established because for fire wood, you need to cut trees and to go on tree cutting sessions in those areas is more than just wrong!It is also ecologically disastrous. So your closing argument for the article was well...not quite a punch like you and the readers would have hoped for.

Another thing: Why is it that all the European, American, Japanese and mountaineers from teh world over abide by the rules established by other richer and powerful countries (Alps, for example, or even the mountains in Denver)- but not abide by a simple and logical rule established in Nepal?

Is it even needed to make this rule about waste management? Should it not be basic logic? Or is it that because these folks pay money to get a permit to climb a mountain, they assume they have the right to leave behind their waste? Thats just wrong!

The mistake, to begin with, is on the part of those who go on these expeditions. Had they respected the mountain and nature, surely they would not be as reckless. But maybe being able to climb the mountain gives them the sense that they have in fact defeated nature, and so like raiders raiding tombs and farms of a defeated country, they too feel teh need and urge to behave with such barbaric manners.