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The Embarrassing History of Crap Thrown into Yellowstone’s Geysers

151 points by camtarn 10y ago

sizzzzlerz 10y ago
I like the one from last year where some idiot decided to have a soak in a hot spring so he and his sister went into a off-limits area of a geyser basin. Attempting to test the waters at one with his fingers, he slipped and fell in. By the time the rangers got there, his body was at the bottom of the pool but, due to a lightning storm, they had to abandon recovery until the next day. When they got there the following morning, the body was mostly gone, having been dissolved by the acidic waters.
- WkndTriathlete 10y ago
  I visited Yellowstone last year for the second time and people there were doing the same stupid things they were doing 20 years ago when I first went. Some of it is unexpected - for example, caps and water bottles being blown off of people's heads or off of handrails into Mammoth Hot Springs - but some of it is just plain stupid (for example, crowds of people encircling a bear to take photographs or people walking up to the elk to pet them.) All of this happens despite the presence of park personnel continuously walking through all of the areas that have been turned into exhibits, and despite everyone having at least a cell phone camera to take photographs from a safe, non-polluting distance.
  - dboreham 10y ago
    I live near Yellowstone and visitors doing stupid things is a common source of local amusement and bemusement. A local bar had a sign outside last year that said : "Thinking about throwing a baby Bison in the trunk of your car? Come inside for a drink instead." There are in addition many more incidents that don't get covered beyond the local paper: Bison gorings, people falling off cliffs, a guy got trampled by a moose. A little outside the park, but a local guy got electrocuted by a bear that had itself been electrocuted by a fallen power pole. A party of school girls were "pinned down" for several hours by a black bear. It's endless. These are just the incidents I recall off the top of my head, besides the nationally reported stuff like Canadians traipsing through Grand Prismatic Spring and various people beinv eaten by bears. Also check out the videos of park and fish+game staff using explosives to dispose of moose carcases in the field.
    - jameslk 10y ago
      > A local bar had a sign outside last year that said : "Thinking about throwing a baby Bison in the trunk of your car? Come inside for a drink instead." I was wondering the backstory behind this sign, and apparently someone actually did this. "What started out as an apparently well-intentioned move by tourists who placed a young bison in the back of their vehicle because they believed it looked cold, has ended in no small sadness. On Monday, officials at Yellowstone National Park revealed that the calf had to be put down after being rejected by its herd." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/yellowstone-baby-bison-euthanised-after-visitors-put-it-in-their-suv-a7033101.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/yellowstone...
      - dboreham 10y ago
        Sorry, I thought that one was widely-known so did't include the details -- it was covered on the late-night comedy shows at the time I seem to remember. Another one I remembered since posting the list above was the tourists who broke several toilets in the park due to standing on the seats. There are now signs, some in Chinese, in the park's public toilets advising not to stand on them.. Source: http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/environmental/when-east-meets-west-toilet-seats-take-a-beating/article_a64d8bb5-9455-5dd9-a420-65103167c2f8.html http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/environmental/when-east-m...
        B1FF_PSUVM 10y ago
        > broke several toilets in the park due to standing on the seats Amusingly, one of my early memories of newspaper reading was that a lady had won a lawsuit for breaking her ankle that way (yes, in the US, why do you ask? ;-)
        saul_goodman 10y ago
        Heh, in Asia sit-down toilets are rare in the country-side. They use a squat-style toilet with foot pads, the water trap is just below ground and you "flush" by pouring a small bucket of water in the hole when finished. But usually if you have the means to travel to the US from Asia you're afluent enough to have seen a sit-down shitter before. They do exist in Asia/China.
- anaximander 10y ago
  What is there to like about such an event?
  - contingencies 10y ago
    If you concentrate hard enough, you can feel a distant, cleansing, tingling sensation... that's Darwinian gene pool improvement, which is powered not by death itself but the collective goosebumps of everyone who heard about the mode of expiry actively discouraging such idiocy in the future.
    - Broken_Hippo 10y ago
      This comment made my morning. Thanks.
  - guyfawkes303 10y ago
    Darwin at work.
  - anigbrowl 10y ago
    One less foolish person to deal with. It's awful when something like this happens to a child but adults who are wilfully stupid about their own safety often seem equally comfortable inflicting their stupidity on everyone else. It's one thing to take a calculated risk and die because the gamble didn't pay off or you made some error in your risk calculus. It's quite another to just ignore the clearest possible warnings that something is a Bad Idea That Will Kill You. I don't really feel any sympathy in the latter case.
    - diebir 10y ago
      Soaking in most springs in the Park is illegal. However, the illegality is not based on the level of danger for a given spring. Soaking is a great idea if done carefully. There are several places in YNP where it is allowed, officially or semi-officially. In fact, every time I visit Yellowstone NP (like 5 times a year) it strikes me how silly it is that people are kept and are happy to stay on boardwalks and paved roads. They might just as well watch the BBC documentary and save everyone the trouble. If you are outdoors you should hike, swim, wade and sense the warm thermal waters. YNP is the most regulated and civilized park I know. I think this is sad. Driving to Yellowstone on an interstate is probably more dangerous anyway.
- mattnumbe 10y ago
  I highly suggest reading the book Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park. It goes over a long history of really stupid people (along with some extremely sad stories) who have died in the park.
  - yohui 10y ago
    I remember picking up that book from the gift store on my first trip through Yellowstone. Made for morbidly engrossing reading. Links, for those interested: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1570984506/ https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1570984506/ https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=U5uLAgAAQBAJ https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=U5uLAgAAQBAJ Interview with the author: http://www.yellowstonepark.com/unnatural-deaths-yellowstone-national-park-avoid/ http://www.yellowstonepark.com/unnatural-deaths-yellowstone-...
  - sizzzzlerz 10y ago
    There are similar books documenting deaths in both Yosemite and Grand Canyon. While a number of the deaths are accidents or wrong-place-wrong-time things most are caused by the person doing the dying. Example: those who chose to swim in the pool just above Nevada Falls in Yosemite and getting swept over the falls.
- fpgaminer 10y ago
  Yeah, heard that one too when we were there last winter. I think people are confused by the term "hot spring". Makes it sound like those bubbling pools are jacuzzis. But no, most of them are bubbling pools of _sulfuric_acid_! I guess people don't figure that out from the fart smells...
nxrabl 10y ago
Looks like someone at Atlas Obscura listens to the No Such Thing As A Fish podcast [0] (Episode 160). Not that they shouldn't, it's a great show. [0]: http://qi.com/podcast/ http://qi.com/podcast/
gcb0 10y ago
we should start a video link thread! first one with excellent cameramanship https://youtu.be/WKoXUIJBC-4 https://youtu.be/WKoXUIJBC-4
- gcb0 10y ago
  now a click bait title https://youtu.be/Cv4QozXG8Yg https://youtu.be/Cv4QozXG8Yg
sly010 10y ago
I proposed my wife in front of the "original" Geyser (actually the functioning one right next to it) in Iceland. The night we posted a photo a friend of mine emailed me asking if I was the a7le who threw the red paint into the Geyser. I didn't know what he was talking about, until I checked the news. Turns out an hour after we left, some "artist" decided that a pink geyser is going to be his art [0]. While I cannot resist wondering about the possibility of proposing in front of a pink Geysir ... still ... what the f4k is wrong with people? [0] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3055145/Chilean-artist-jailed-dyeing-Iceland-s-famous-natural-hot-spring-PINK-food-colouring.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3055145/Chilean-arti...
- pacaro 10y ago
  The original having been mostly blocked by people throwing rocks in it to make it "go off" IIRC I was in Iceland in 2000 (ish) and the original was occasionally doing its thing then, but not well
- yohui 10y ago
  Better news source: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-32496258 http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-32496258 He was ultimately acquitted on a technicality: http://icelandreview.com/news/2016/07/06/pink-geyser-project-artist-acquitted http://icelandreview.com/news/2016/07/06/pink-geyser-project... Some valid points were raised in the man's defense (e.g. the food coloring dissipated fairly quickly) though I can't say I approve. On a side note, it seems any mention of the controversy has been scrubbed from his Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Evaristti https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Evaristti
  - Chris2048 10y ago
    Details have been removed from the Wikipedia page?
subpixel 10y ago
10+ years ago I visited Yellowstone in the winter, and thought it would be cool to rent a snowmobile. I've never felt like such a jerk as when I blazed into a national park alongside dozens of other yahoos atop our loud, polluting machines spewing exhaust everywhere. Our group, from one rental company, would periodically cross paths with groups from other companies, so who knows how many of us there actually were. At one point en elk or moose or such was near the road, and it was immediately surrounded by ten or so snowmobiles, each trying to see how close they could get before taking a photo. I looked it up at the time and I think the Clinton administration tried to curtail the snowmobile invasion, only to face such opposition from operators that they gave up. This is why we can't have nice things, I guess.
- dboreham 10y ago
  I haven't kept track of the exact situation today, but afaik the scene you describe is not allowed any more. Last time we were in the snow-accessible part of the park in winter (2 years ago) I don't believe any snowmobiles were allowed. The time before that they were allowed but only in guided groups and they had to be low-emission/low-noise machines.
- Theodores 10y ago
  I cycled through Yellowstone, down from Montana. I had high hopes for the place in part because I was meeting some friends there and it was Yellowstone!!! Yet, by the time I got there I had seen the big fauna/flora I was expecting to be 'park exclusive'. So, bear walks across the road, straight in front of me in broad daylight, I think 'just a bear!' not realising that this just does not happen. Instead I am thinking of how great it will be to finally get to the park where I can see the bears properly!!! So, by accident of circumstance, I ventured through the park the low-carbon way, without the RV, snowmobile, hunting rifle, BBQ, plastic chairs or anything else. I was amazed the park had dual carriageways with overpasses for the traffic. I found my time in the park to be slightly frustrating and the time in the greater area more satisfying. The hordes of RV tourists and their eagerness to photo anything that moved was probably the thing that made it not so fun to be in the park. I should say that bicycle + Yellowstone is a very good option as you can camp anywhere in the National Park campgrounds with no expectation to book. The RV people have to book aeons in advance and can't just casually turn up before dusk to get a pitch. I am sure that cyclists annoy motorists on the park roads, it is apparent that you are annoying others - queue of traffic behind says that. But I am not sure motorists are aware that they might be a 'yahoo' of sorts. I am not sure that being a 'yahoo' is actually that wrong, perhaps it is the regular RV that is more insidious, as there the RV owner has taken everything to the park that cyclist types like myself have gone to the park to escape! TVs, motors, outside music - all nice things but nuisance and unnecessary too. Obviously the park should be closed to all traffic that emits emissions, to make the place a nice drive for Tesla owners and cyclists. Then we could have lots of people driving their ICE car to the park to then hire some electric transportation. That would be better income for the snowmobile operator types.
mschuster91 10y ago
> I have no idea if the story is true or not. But it's sad to think a park ranger had to die for such an obvious problem to get solved. It's an old pattern: no one bothers about proactive regulation, it always needs one (or multiple) deaths. The reason is capitalism - security or in this case emission controls cost money which can be saved until the shxt hits the fan and regulation is unavoidable.
- golergka 10y ago
  > The reason is capitalism Because in alternative economical systems, there's no scarcity of resources and authorities in charge have absolutely no motivation to save those resources up. Right? If you label any situation of resource scarcity and misuse as "because capitalism", it just means you don't understand what capitalism and other economic systems are about.
  - LesZedCB 10y ago
    in this case, it was the lobbying of the adventure tour businesses that demanded they stay in business, despite the obvious drawbacks of them continuing to pollute the park with noise and fuel waste.
    - golergka 10y ago
      A bad decision being made because a power group have defended it's interests that damaged the interests of the public. You think this is unique to capitalism?
      - earlcp 10y ago
        And what make this really bad is that there are electric snowmobiles available that are quieter and non-polluting.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- 10y ago
gumby 10y ago
Human nature is, well, nature. But you can take advantage of it as well. Ever noticed the nice Gaussian distribution of people at a beach? There's a huge number of people close to the path from the parking lot, but the number of people drops off steeply with each step you take away from the entrance. You'll find this elsewhere: I personally avoid national and CA state parks because they are crowded and pretty much ban dogs (a rule I support even though it keeps me out of them too). Wilderness areas, which are much less developed, or not developed at all, require a little bit of walking so are usually empty, and again, the farther you go from the parking lot the exponentially lower probability you have of encountering another person (or litter etc). This is true of hunting season too (in CA): you see hunters in their cars parked by the side of the road, but hike in even a mile and you can't even hear a bang. (On the other hand in Minnesota I saw people out with their sled dogs all over the place). PS: on the dog thing: a poorly trained dog can really upset the wildlife, and even a well trained dog that sticks next to you will affect the fauna. I always camp with a dog, but I am aware of how it affects my ability to Leave No Trace.

151 points by camtarn 10y ago

I like the one from last year where some idiot decided to have a soak in a hot spring so he and his sister went into a off-limits area of a geyser basin. Attempting to test the waters at one with his fingers, he slipped and fell in. By the time the rangers got there, his body was at the bottom of the pool but, due to a lightning storm, they had to abandon recovery until the next day. When they got there the following morning, the body was mostly gone, having been dissolved by the acidic waters.

WkndTriathlete 10y ago
I visited Yellowstone last year for the second time and people there were doing the same stupid things they were doing 20 years ago when I first went. Some of it is unexpected - for example, caps and water bottles being blown off of people's heads or off of handrails into Mammoth Hot Springs - but some of it is just plain stupid (for example, crowds of people encircling a bear to take photographs or people walking up to the elk to pet them.) All of this happens despite the presence of park personnel continuously walking through all of the areas that have been turned into exhibits, and despite everyone having at least a cell phone camera to take photographs from a safe, non-polluting distance.
- dboreham 10y ago
  I live near Yellowstone and visitors doing stupid things is a common source of local amusement and bemusement. A local bar had a sign outside last year that said : "Thinking about throwing a baby Bison in the trunk of your car? Come inside for a drink instead." There are in addition many more incidents that don't get covered beyond the local paper: Bison gorings, people falling off cliffs, a guy got trampled by a moose. A little outside the park, but a local guy got electrocuted by a bear that had itself been electrocuted by a fallen power pole. A party of school girls were "pinned down" for several hours by a black bear. It's endless. These are just the incidents I recall off the top of my head, besides the nationally reported stuff like Canadians traipsing through Grand Prismatic Spring and various people beinv eaten by bears. Also check out the videos of park and fish+game staff using explosives to dispose of moose carcases in the field.
  - jameslk 10y ago
    > A local bar had a sign outside last year that said : "Thinking about throwing a baby Bison in the trunk of your car? Come inside for a drink instead." I was wondering the backstory behind this sign, and apparently someone actually did this. "What started out as an apparently well-intentioned move by tourists who placed a young bison in the back of their vehicle because they believed it looked cold, has ended in no small sadness. On Monday, officials at Yellowstone National Park revealed that the calf had to be put down after being rejected by its herd." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/yellowstone-baby-bison-euthanised-after-visitors-put-it-in-their-suv-a7033101.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/yellowstone...
    - dboreham 10y ago
      Sorry, I thought that one was widely-known so did't include the details -- it was covered on the late-night comedy shows at the time I seem to remember. Another one I remembered since posting the list above was the tourists who broke several toilets in the park due to standing on the seats. There are now signs, some in Chinese, in the park's public toilets advising not to stand on them.. Source: http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/environmental/when-east-meets-west-toilet-seats-take-a-beating/article_a64d8bb5-9455-5dd9-a420-65103167c2f8.html http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/environmental/when-east-m...
      - B1FF_PSUVM 10y ago
        > broke several toilets in the park due to standing on the seats Amusingly, one of my early memories of newspaper reading was that a lady had won a lawsuit for breaking her ankle that way (yes, in the US, why do you ask? ;-)
      - saul_goodman 10y ago
        Heh, in Asia sit-down toilets are rare in the country-side. They use a squat-style toilet with foot pads, the water trap is just below ground and you "flush" by pouring a small bucket of water in the hole when finished. But usually if you have the means to travel to the US from Asia you're afluent enough to have seen a sit-down shitter before. They do exist in Asia/China.
anaximander 10y ago
What is there to like about such an event?
- contingencies 10y ago
  If you concentrate hard enough, you can feel a distant, cleansing, tingling sensation... that's Darwinian gene pool improvement, which is powered not by death itself but the collective goosebumps of everyone who heard about the mode of expiry actively discouraging such idiocy in the future.
  - Broken_Hippo 10y ago
    This comment made my morning. Thanks.
- guyfawkes303 10y ago
  Darwin at work.
- anigbrowl 10y ago
  One less foolish person to deal with. It's awful when something like this happens to a child but adults who are wilfully stupid about their own safety often seem equally comfortable inflicting their stupidity on everyone else. It's one thing to take a calculated risk and die because the gamble didn't pay off or you made some error in your risk calculus. It's quite another to just ignore the clearest possible warnings that something is a Bad Idea That Will Kill You. I don't really feel any sympathy in the latter case.
  - diebir 10y ago
    Soaking in most springs in the Park is illegal. However, the illegality is not based on the level of danger for a given spring. Soaking is a great idea if done carefully. There are several places in YNP where it is allowed, officially or semi-officially. In fact, every time I visit Yellowstone NP (like 5 times a year) it strikes me how silly it is that people are kept and are happy to stay on boardwalks and paved roads. They might just as well watch the BBC documentary and save everyone the trouble. If you are outdoors you should hike, swim, wade and sense the warm thermal waters. YNP is the most regulated and civilized park I know. I think this is sad. Driving to Yellowstone on an interstate is probably more dangerous anyway.
mattnumbe 10y ago
I highly suggest reading the book Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park. It goes over a long history of really stupid people (along with some extremely sad stories) who have died in the park.
- yohui 10y ago
  I remember picking up that book from the gift store on my first trip through Yellowstone. Made for morbidly engrossing reading. Links, for those interested: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1570984506/ https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1570984506/ https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=U5uLAgAAQBAJ https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=U5uLAgAAQBAJ Interview with the author: http://www.yellowstonepark.com/unnatural-deaths-yellowstone-national-park-avoid/ http://www.yellowstonepark.com/unnatural-deaths-yellowstone-...
- sizzzzlerz 10y ago
  There are similar books documenting deaths in both Yosemite and Grand Canyon. While a number of the deaths are accidents or wrong-place-wrong-time things most are caused by the person doing the dying. Example: those who chose to swim in the pool just above Nevada Falls in Yosemite and getting swept over the falls.
fpgaminer 10y ago
Yeah, heard that one too when we were there last winter. I think people are confused by the term "hot spring". Makes it sound like those bubbling pools are jacuzzis. But no, most of them are bubbling pools of _sulfuric_acid_! I guess people don't figure that out from the fart smells...

nxrabl 10y ago

Looks like someone at Atlas Obscura listens to the No Such Thing As A Fish podcast [0] (Episode 160). Not that they shouldn't, it's a great show. [0]: http://qi.com/podcast/ http://qi.com/podcast/

gcb0 10y ago

we should start a video link thread! first one with excellent cameramanship https://youtu.be/WKoXUIJBC-4 https://youtu.be/WKoXUIJBC-4

gcb0 10y ago
now a click bait title https://youtu.be/Cv4QozXG8Yg https://youtu.be/Cv4QozXG8Yg

sly010 10y ago

I proposed my wife in front of the "original" Geyser (actually the functioning one right next to it) in Iceland. The night we posted a photo a friend of mine emailed me asking if I was the a7le who threw the red paint into the Geyser. I didn't know what he was talking about, until I checked the news. Turns out an hour after we left, some "artist" decided that a pink geyser is going to be his art [0]. While I cannot resist wondering about the possibility of proposing in front of a pink Geysir ... still ... what the f4k is wrong with people? [0] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3055145/Chilean-artist-jailed-dyeing-Iceland-s-famous-natural-hot-spring-PINK-food-colouring.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3055145/Chilean-arti...

pacaro 10y ago
The original having been mostly blocked by people throwing rocks in it to make it "go off" IIRC I was in Iceland in 2000 (ish) and the original was occasionally doing its thing then, but not well
yohui 10y ago
Better news source: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-32496258 http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-32496258 He was ultimately acquitted on a technicality: http://icelandreview.com/news/2016/07/06/pink-geyser-project-artist-acquitted http://icelandreview.com/news/2016/07/06/pink-geyser-project... Some valid points were raised in the man's defense (e.g. the food coloring dissipated fairly quickly) though I can't say I approve. On a side note, it seems any mention of the controversy has been scrubbed from his Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Evaristti https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Evaristti
- Chris2048 10y ago
  Details have been removed from the Wikipedia page?

subpixel 10y ago

10+ years ago I visited Yellowstone in the winter, and thought it would be cool to rent a snowmobile. I've never felt like such a jerk as when I blazed into a national park alongside dozens of other yahoos atop our loud, polluting machines spewing exhaust everywhere. Our group, from one rental company, would periodically cross paths with groups from other companies, so who knows how many of us there actually were. At one point en elk or moose or such was near the road, and it was immediately surrounded by ten or so snowmobiles, each trying to see how close they could get before taking a photo. I looked it up at the time and I think the Clinton administration tried to curtail the snowmobile invasion, only to face such opposition from operators that they gave up. This is why we can't have nice things, I guess.

dboreham 10y ago
I haven't kept track of the exact situation today, but afaik the scene you describe is not allowed any more. Last time we were in the snow-accessible part of the park in winter (2 years ago) I don't believe any snowmobiles were allowed. The time before that they were allowed but only in guided groups and they had to be low-emission/low-noise machines.
Theodores 10y ago
I cycled through Yellowstone, down from Montana. I had high hopes for the place in part because I was meeting some friends there and it was Yellowstone!!! Yet, by the time I got there I had seen the big fauna/flora I was expecting to be 'park exclusive'. So, bear walks across the road, straight in front of me in broad daylight, I think 'just a bear!' not realising that this just does not happen. Instead I am thinking of how great it will be to finally get to the park where I can see the bears properly!!! So, by accident of circumstance, I ventured through the park the low-carbon way, without the RV, snowmobile, hunting rifle, BBQ, plastic chairs or anything else. I was amazed the park had dual carriageways with overpasses for the traffic. I found my time in the park to be slightly frustrating and the time in the greater area more satisfying. The hordes of RV tourists and their eagerness to photo anything that moved was probably the thing that made it not so fun to be in the park. I should say that bicycle + Yellowstone is a very good option as you can camp anywhere in the National Park campgrounds with no expectation to book. The RV people have to book aeons in advance and can't just casually turn up before dusk to get a pitch. I am sure that cyclists annoy motorists on the park roads, it is apparent that you are annoying others - queue of traffic behind says that. But I am not sure motorists are aware that they might be a 'yahoo' of sorts. I am not sure that being a 'yahoo' is actually that wrong, perhaps it is the regular RV that is more insidious, as there the RV owner has taken everything to the park that cyclist types like myself have gone to the park to escape! TVs, motors, outside music - all nice things but nuisance and unnecessary too. Obviously the park should be closed to all traffic that emits emissions, to make the place a nice drive for Tesla owners and cyclists. Then we could have lots of people driving their ICE car to the park to then hire some electric transportation. That would be better income for the snowmobile operator types.

mschuster91 10y ago

> I have no idea if the story is true or not. But it's sad to think a park ranger had to die for such an obvious problem to get solved. It's an old pattern: no one bothers about proactive regulation, it always needs one (or multiple) deaths. The reason is capitalism - security or in this case emission controls cost money which can be saved until the shxt hits the fan and regulation is unavoidable.

golergka 10y ago
> The reason is capitalism Because in alternative economical systems, there's no scarcity of resources and authorities in charge have absolutely no motivation to save those resources up. Right? If you label any situation of resource scarcity and misuse as "because capitalism", it just means you don't understand what capitalism and other economic systems are about.
- LesZedCB 10y ago
  in this case, it was the lobbying of the adventure tour businesses that demanded they stay in business, despite the obvious drawbacks of them continuing to pollute the park with noise and fuel waste.
  - golergka 10y ago
    A bad decision being made because a power group have defended it's interests that damaged the interests of the public. You think this is unique to capitalism?
    - earlcp 10y ago
      And what make this really bad is that there are electric snowmobiles available that are quieter and non-polluting.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
10y ago

gumby 10y ago

Human nature is, well, nature. But you can take advantage of it as well. Ever noticed the nice Gaussian distribution of people at a beach? There's a huge number of people close to the path from the parking lot, but the number of people drops off steeply with each step you take away from the entrance. You'll find this elsewhere: I personally avoid national and CA state parks because they are crowded and pretty much ban dogs (a rule I support even though it keeps me out of them too). Wilderness areas, which are much less developed, or not developed at all, require a little bit of walking so are usually empty, and again, the farther you go from the parking lot the exponentially lower probability you have of encountering another person (or litter etc). This is true of hunting season too (in CA): you see hunters in their cars parked by the side of the road, but hike in even a mile and you can't even hear a bang. (On the other hand in Minnesota I saw people out with their sled dogs all over the place). PS: on the dog thing: a poorly trained dog can really upset the wildlife, and even a well trained dog that sticks next to you will affect the fauna. I always camp with a dog, but I am aware of how it affects my ability to Leave No Trace.