National Parks at Risk

[Persia]

National Parks at Risk: Photos

http://news.discovery.com/earth/national-parks-in-danger-110708.html

[Rosenrot]

I had a class called Nature and American Values. Very interesting. Professor was a dynamic speaker. Really great. For one week we debated the question: "Are we loving our National Parks to death?" I think we might be, but no one seems to have an answer to the problem.

[SilverCougar]

Problem is... certain people in charge of various things, and certain groups of politically motivated people would rather spend the 9 million on defense then the parks.

*sighs*

[Indiogene]

We shouldn't treat National Parks in the same manner city parks are (i.e. litter, vandalism, vagrancy and lack of security esp. at night hours), they are a national treasure to keep and pass down to the next generations. National and state parks celebrates and preserves the natural splendor of our world in an ultimate state of beauty.

I always thought development of any kind is prohibited or restricted inside national parks, which are federal jurisdiction. But the almighty buck identicates the old adage "When Money talks, common sense walks." We need a new adage although was said 65 years ago by President Harry S. Truman: "The buck stops here."

Btw, my own maternal grandfather knew "Ol' Harry" when serving as an assistant of the secretary of the representative of the Marines in the Presidental Color Guard in Washington DC in the 1940s.

Edited July 11, 2011 by Makoto Jupiter

[Rosenrot]

The biggest problem with national parks is not that they're threatened by development (the lands that border them are), it's that we're essentially "loving them to death." The number of people that visit many of these parks like Yellowstone is so great that it's causing ecological harm to the parks. The roads in Yellowstone allow a lot of cars to drive through the park. As many of you know, car exhaust is not what most creatures want to breathe. It's a sad state of affairs.