President Napolitano receives a Grivel ice axe on the occasion of the presentation of the Share Everest project:

“I wish this expedition every success” said Napolitano this morning as he gave the Italian flag to Silvio Mondinelli, an alpinist in the Guardia di Finanza. “This new challenge will take Italian knowledge to the highest levels of international climate research and if the summit is reached on the 2nd June it would also be a gift to the Republic of Italy”.
   
During the visit, Agostino da Polenza, president of the EvK2Cnr Committee, illustrated the SHARE Everest project to President Napolitano. He explained about the temperature sensor to be taken to the summit of Everest. This will constantly transmit the temperature at 8850m, the highest point of the planet. The information is extremely important, as well as symbolic, as it represents the highest point of contact between the Earth and the sky.
      
Paolo Bonasoni from Cnr-Isac, scientific advisor for the SHARE project, told the President about how the climate monitoring station, to be installed 8000m below the summit on the South Coll, works. The station will monitor humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and direction plus other atmospheric information. All the data from this station will go to complete the data and instruments from the rest of the SHARE network already present in Nepal at various altitudes.
            
“I’m pleased to find researchers with an ever increasing passion for science”, said Napolitano, “especially considering the difficulties that scientific research is currently facing. I hope that the institutions will increase their support to research especially to projects with an international character such as SHARE – Everest”.
             
“I am pleased that Europe is making progress with its integrated climate and energy policies” said Napolitano when speaking to Christophe Bouvier, Director and regional representative for UNEP Europe. He was a member of the Italian delegation presenting the EVEREST – Share project to the Quirinale.
             
The meeting with President Napolitano signalled the official launch of the project. Several important events are planned: mountaineering and above all scientific.
               
The first will be held at Padova, on 17th and 18th April, with the international conference “Mountains as early indicators of climate change”. This is a high level international scientific event promoted by UNEP (the United Nations environmental programme) at which some of the world’s greatest scientists will attend.
                  
The mountains are considered to be the first part in a given area to register the effects of global climate change; consequently they can give important data relating to changes on the planet. The Padova conference, organised by the EvK2Cnr Committee and by UNEP, alongside the University of Padova and Eurac Research will be a good opportunity to further study in this field. Scientific researchers from all over the world will compare the effects of global warming, concentrating on high altitude ecosystems. A strong message will be sent to the international community warning of the importance that mountains will have to have in future programmes dealing with adaptation to the new scenarios.
             
During the conference Richard Armstrong, a researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre at the University of Colorado, will hand over the temperature sensor for the summit of Everest directly into the hands of Agostino Da Polenza, who will then leave for Nepal the following day.
                    
At the beginning of May two wireless antennas will be installed to transmit at high altitude. One will be on Kala Patthar (5600m), where there is already an EvK2Cnr weather station: this antenna will act as a bridge for the data transmitted from the Colle Sud. A second transmitter will be placed at 5300m, near the Pyramid Laboratory: this will act as a bridge for the data emitted from the temperature sensor on the summit of Everest.
             
During the month of May the Italian expedition will complete the work on the South face of the mountain transporting to the higher altitudes the scientific equipment that will monitor the climate on the highest point of the world.
                     
The monitoring station will be installed on the Colle Sud, 8000m, towards the end of May. A few days later Silvio Mondinelli and the other alpinists will carry the temperature sensor onto the summit of Everest. The ascent will be carried out without oxygen as the expedition wants to be ethically correct and respectful of the environment from the point of view of alpinism and sport.
           
The team heading for Everest include the following: alpinists Marco Confortola and Michele Enzio, business men Davide Zuliani and Stefania Mondini, the journalists Lorenzo Cremonesi of the Corriere della Sera, Paolo Giani from Rai 1, the cameraman Ivan Piai and five high altitude sherpas.
            
The whole expedition, with its scientific and alpinist developments, can be followed live on the web sites: www.share-everest.com, www.montagna.tv, www.scienze.tv. Videos, photo galleries and interviews of the team and their adventure will be made visible.
                  
This venture is part of the International Year of Planet Earth declared by the United Nations. The UN document defines mountains as privileged indicators of the effects of climate change and the planet’s state of health.
                       

The EvK2Cnr Committee has 20 years experience in scientific research at high altitude and has worked on the SHARE project (Stations at High Altitude for Research on the Environment), a network of observatories that monitor the climate and environment alongside  Unep, Wmo, Nasa, Esa and Iucn.