Thread: An Example of the Peiople I Call "Environuts" - Tear Down the Yoesmite Bridges !

I have used the term "environuts" before, and some posters think I was labeling them. Not so, I cannot imagine any poster here being this crazy:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/07...est=latestnews

Now the "river" in Yosemite is a stream.... in the dry season you can wade across it shin deep. In the snow melt time it is a torrent. It is very scenic.....

For those of you who haven't been there Yosemite Vally is one of the most beautiful places in North America. Go when you get a chance. The park service maintains very nice roads that braid their way up the valley, many stretches are one way. The flow of traffic is great. I have been ther 4 times and plan to go again tis fall, I have never been in anything resembling at traffic jam.

These bridges are lovely stone faced small bridges that carry the road at strategic locations across the (Merced sp?) river

NOW come the environuts, they want the 3 of the bridges that have abutments in the water torn down because the "interfere with the natural flow of the river"....

This will make the park much more difficult to access, but who cares as long as the water is freeeeeeeeeeee................ ...

Granny says it one o' dem end time plagues - we all gonna die...

Yosemite open despite virus that killed two
Mon, Sep 3, 2012 - The deadly virus raising fears at California's Yosemite National Park does not spread easily, and, despite two recent deaths, does not warrant closing the park, a spokeswoman said Monday.

So far, at least six cases have been confirmed of the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a rare but serious illness that kills one in three victims and cannot be treated. "The hantavirus is contracted by breathing a particle from mice feces and mice urine," and is spread by the deer mouse, a rodent that lives in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, park spokeswoman Kari Cobb explained. "As long as individuals are staying in an area with good ventilation," and keeping watch for signs of mice in the area, "they should be fine," she told AFP. "You cannot contract the hantavirus if you're just walking around the park," she emphasized, adding that visitors need not wear a mask to avoid contagion. Cobbs said that while some canceled their reservations for the long holiday weekend ending with Labor Day on Monday, the gaps had been filled and overall the park was about as busy as usual. She did not give specific figures, but during an average weekend, Yosemite hosts around 7,500 tourists.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that about 10,000 visitors could have been exposed to the deadly virus while staying at the park's scenic "Signature Tent Cabins." But park officials estimated just 3,000 people stayed in the lodgings between June 10 and August 24, when they could have run the risk of developing the disease within the next six weeks. They have all, including the international visitors, been notified of the risk of exposure, Cobbs said. The cabins, located in the popular lodging area of Curry Village in Yosemite Valley, the park's tourist center, were shut down last week. "The disease often progresses rapidly to respiratory distress, requiring supplemental oxygen and/or intubation, non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema and shock," the CDC said when it alerted the outbreak. "There is no specific treatment available, but early recognition and administration of supportive care greatly increase the chance of survival."

The French health ministry said Sunday that 53 French tourist families who stayed in the tents were being examined for signs of the illness. And Britain's Health Protection Agency said that about 100 British travelers may have been exposed, adding that it is working on getting in touch with them. A 2008 study by California's Public Health Department found that the virus can be found in about one in five of the deer mice in the state's forest service facilities.

A California microbiologist who befriended one of the people killed by the virus said that even if the transmission risk is low, the park should have warned visitors in advance. "If you can't get rid of the rodent problem completely and you can't get rid of the virus completely, the safety net includes educating visitors so if they do become ill, they can get to a hospital sooner," the scientist told a local ABC television affiliate. "That still doesn't guarantee that they'll live, but chances of survival are better if you get to a hospital sooner." Visitors now receive information leaflets upon entering Yosemite. Last week, California health officials said that a resident of the state and another person from Pennsylvania had died, while four others were sick, but recovering. Since the disease was identified in 1993, there have been 60 cases in California and 587 nationwide.

http://news.yahoo.com/yosemite-open-...234011757.html

The biggest problem that threatens the Yosemite National Park is a problem no one is talking about: there are just too many people!
The population of Southern California has skyrocketed in the last 3 decades, driven by high levels of immigration from other countries. You can't have so many people trampling through and driving their cars into a natural area without it creating problems.

Another death at Yosemirte...

3rd hantavirus death linked to Yosemite outbreak
September 6, 2012 - A West Virginian is the third person to die so far from a rodent-borne illness linked to some tent cabins at Yosemite National Park that has now stricken eight people in all, health officials said Thursday.

Five people are ill from the outbreak reported last week by park officials, who said up to 10,000 guests could have been exposed to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome from sleeping in the cabins since June 10. More infections could be reported. Alerts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent to public health agencies, doctors and hospitals have turned up other suspected cases that have not yet been confirmed. This week the European CDC and the World Health Organization issued global alerts for travelers to any country to avoid exposure to rodents.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, declined to release details of the West Virginia victim at a news conference. Gupta said the victim had visited the park since June but declined to be more specific, citing the family's wish to grieve in private. The other deaths occurred in California and Pennsylvania. Those that were sickened also were from California and the National Park Service said Wednesday they were either improving or recovering.

Seven of the cases involved guests at the insulated "Signature" cabins in the park's historic Curry Village section. The California Department of Public Health said the other case involved someone who stayed in several High Sierra Camps in a different area of Yosemite in July. Yosemite officials said the cabins have been closed and the park is reaching out to overnight guests who have stayed in the cabins. Gupta declined to elaborate on whether anyone was traveling with the Kanawha County victim, although he said his department knew of no other cases of hantavirus. "The time has lapsed in a way that it should not be a concern," Gupta said.

Health officials say the disease isn't spread from person to person. There is no cure for the virus, which can affect people of any age. The disease is carried in the feces, urine and saliva of deer mice and other rodents and carried on airborne particles and dust. People can be infected by inhaling the virus or by handling infected rodents. Infected people usually have flu-like symptoms including fever, shortness of breath, chills and muscle and body aches. The illness can take six weeks to incubate before rapid acute respiratory and organ failure. Anyone exhibiting the symptoms must be hospitalized. More than 36 percent of people who contract the rare illness will die from it.

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