There are multiple sources I could point you to if you happen to be convinced that the Earth is flat, but since a picture speaks a thousand words, just check out this selfie from the top of Mount Everest.
As the Earth’s highest mountain above sea level, successfully conquering Mount Everest will give you just about the best view you can get with your feet still on the ground. If it’s not cloudy, that is.
With that in mind, the mountain is definitely one of the best places to snap a picture, and doing so would not only give you incredible bragging rights, but a pretty good science lesson on the shape of the Earth.
However, since not everyone can climb Mount Everest, I’ll use an existing selfie to prove it.
The image was captured by a climber at the very top of the mountain, which sits more than 8,848 metres high.
From all the way up there – plus a high-angled camera for good measure – he snapped a selfie which quite clearly shows the Earth bending into a sphere behind him.
This view of our planet is in direct contrast with what some conspiracy theorists believe about the shape of the Earth, so the image later made its way to Reddit, where it was shared alongside the caption: “Checkmate Flat Earth Society.”
As you can probably imagine, it wasn’t long before people started joining in with the poster’s jokey confrontation of the Flat Earth theory.
After coming across the post on Reddit, one person wrote: “I maintain that only like six people believe in a flat Earth. Everyone else is just trolling each other.”
Another added: “I’m all for a good conspiracy theory but there are some, including the flat earth, that are just too much.”
Though the Earth’s proven roundness caught a lot of the attention, many people were unable to ignore the absolute state of Mount Everest shown in the photo.
“Why does the top of Everest look like a garbage dump?,” one person asked.
The image shows countless pieces of colorful material covering the top of the mountain, as well as litter left behind by previous climbers.
National Geographic explains that the mountain has been dubbed the ‘world’s highest garbage dump’ as a result of the trash left there.
However, with its less-than-convenient location and as many as 500 people per day visiting during the peak season, the top of Mount Everest is not likely to get cleaned up any time soon.
So we can learn a lot from this selfie, the most important takeaway being that we need to do better to keep our DEFINITELY ROUND Earth clean.