Green Bigots International(Eco-nazis restricting your access to Yosemite, calling it "renaissance")

Victor Valley Daily Press ^ | 22 Dec. 2004 | Thomas Sowell

[dzzrtrock]

First they destroyed the gasoline station, so that you have to drive miles out of your way to get gas. Then they destroyed a parking lot. Now they want to destroy a dam and a reservoir that supplies more than 2 million people with water.

No, these are not al-Qaeda terrorists. These are our own home-grown fanatics — and the places mentioned are all in Yosemite National Park....

[dzzrtrock]

(and elsewhere)..."wealthy countries want the Earth to be green, the underdeveloped want the Earth fed."...

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[GVnana]

I assume this writer is responding to the desire of some to restore the Hetch Hetchy. I'm not altogether unsympathetic to that dream. I've backbacked most of the High Sierra. When you come down off those mountains, the traffic jams in the Yosemite Valley look like an obsenity. Why should one of the world's greatest natural wonders be another pit stop on a joy ride? I'm playing devil's advocate. Sort of.

[hedgetrimmer]

Green bigots want to social engineer Americans into becoming the new Soviet man. They failed in Russia, so they came here to have a go. Sad thing is they are winning right now.

[henderson field]

We can't really take America back to 1899 unless we get rid of all the immigrants who have come since then, including the Greens and their communist friends.

[Old Professer]

Offer up your sacrifices from the altars of the bowels of earth's great depths and when the gods are satisfied go forth and board no smore.

[hedgetrimmer]

If they really want to restore Hetch Hetchy, they would leave it full of water, as most of its geologic life it was a natural reservoir dammed by a glacial moraine.

What the restorationists really want is to restrict water going to the San Francisco peninsula and the Sierra Club and the Environmental Defense Fund has said so.

[GVnana]

I think the idea is to allow it to return to a glacial moraine. Be that as it may, an alternative for SF water would certainly have to be found.

[dzzrtrock]

Has it ever occurred to you that most people DON'T backpack and that their only way to see this stuff is by car? Wanna carry a little grey-haired Japanese tourist and a mom with three small children on your back the next time or should they just be denied the right to travel freely about Yosemite because they're not as mobile as you? (playing anti-devil's advocate) O(;ºD(

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(BTW< I have taken bikes when I go. Probably can't do that now unless I bike in from outside and THAT isn't going to happen)

[hedgetrimmer]

A moraine is material transported by a glacier and then deposited. The moraine was a dam, 20,000 years ago holding back the water and creating a lake where Hetch Hetchy sits.

It was only above water for 20,000 years, so "restoring" to its true form would mean to leave the water in it.

[taxesareforever]

I think that every activist environmentalist should be required to provide a photo of the home they live in and their mode of transportation. I'll bet not a one of them live in a tent (which they should) and I bet they don't even know how to ride a horse(which they should use as transportation). Until then, bite me.

[GVnana]

Yeah. It has occurred to me. And I don't know the best solution. But it's wrong to turn the place into a messy tourist trap. I guess there's a part of me that says our wilderness is supposed to be wild, challenging and special.

[dzzrtrock]

Has it ever occurred to you that most people DON'T backpack and that their only way to see this stuff is by car? Wanna carry a little grey-haired Japanese tourist and a mom with three small children on your back the next time or should they just be denied the right to travel freely about Yosemite because they're not as mobile as you? (playing anti-devil's advocate) O(;ºD(

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(BTW< I have taken bikes when I go. Probably can't do that now unless I bike in from outside and THAT isn't going to happen)

[Billthedrill]

No, it isn't. Hetch Hetchy is a separate topic. This refers to the restrictions on movement placed on vehicular traffic in Yosemite proper in an effort to - well, it isn't clear what will be accomplished other than a restriction of vehicular traffic. Presumably the lessening of private vehicles will cause the flowers to bloom extra-brightly; perhaps it is merely power for power's sake.

May I gently suggest you read, or re-read the article? This isn't some harrumphing redneck, this is Professor Thomas Sowell, a man who is better suited than anyone of my knowledge to judge what is bigotry and what is not. I happen to agree with him, and I love Yosemite dearly.

[GVnana]

It was only above water for 20,000 years, so "restoring" to its true form would mean to leave the water in it.

That depends on what you select as a "true" date. Since Muir popularized the Hetch Hetchy, it's photos, paintings and recollections from his date that remain in the public mind.

[GVnana]

I think I read the article very carefully and I was surprised and disappointed when I saw his credentials. I would think someone from the Hoover Institute would be a better writer, for one, and for another, preserving Yosemite is a serious issue. It's a special place, not to be dismissed lightly.

[hedgetrimmer]

And you would drain the valley even though it would harm California citizens directly and irrevocably?

[Billthedrill]

Then why did you bring Hetch Hetchy up? It has nothing to do with the article. Personally I couldn't give a rodent's rump if everyone in San Francisco died of thirst if it brought Hetch Hetchy back, but that isn't what this is about.

I submit that Sowell is a brilliant writer, but then I've read his books and you obviously have not. Please do before offering that sort of comment.

[GVnana]

First of all, I don't know why it would harm California citizens more directly or irrevocably than building a damn. Second, I never said I would drain the valley.