The fact that 500k people per year do go through the cave system and it hasn't collapsed yet is empirical disproof of your claim "You can't have your cake and e

The fact that 500k people per year do go through the cave system and it hasn't collapsed yet is empirical disproof of your claim "You can't have your cake and eat it." Nobody is saying this cave will cease to exist if there's some Cheetohs or even a dear carcass in it. They're saying that every disturbance runs the risk of destroying what is interesting to us about the caves. There are literally countless caves that are far, far less interesting than Carlsbad. The hope is that this continues to be a unique and interesting one. Your other comment that a dear carcass wouldn't cause harm "irreparably" reveals your underlying confusion. There's no concept of repair or harm or irreparability as far as nature goes. We know that Carlsbad is interesting to us in the state it's currently in. Contamination could make it even more interesting/valuable to us, or it could destroy its unique value to us. The cave's caretakers obviously believe the latter is the more likely outcome, and in either case we almost certainly will not be able to "repair" it back to its current state.