Are there too many people trying to summit The Himalayas these days?

An avalanche on Mount Manaslu in Nepal this past weekend killed 8 climbers and and injured scores of others. Many had to be airlifted to safety after the avalanche buried 25 tents and washed climbers hundreds of feet down the mountain.
While this CNN article says that avalanches are just an objective risk of climbing large peaks, it also says that this avalanche has brought to light the idea that the sheer numbers of people trying to climb these Himalayan peaks are putting people in danger.
The article cites that "A total of 10 climbers died on Everest in April and May, making it the third deadliest spring season on record after 12 people perished in 1996 and 11 in 2006." Part of this danger was the weather but it was also partially the amount of people trying to summit at the same time was forcing people to wait in line, where while waiting people were much more likely to suffer from frost bite or run out of oxygen.
This inordinate amount of climbers is thought to be caused by inexperienced climbers getting cheap deals on peak climbing season packages and irresponsible tour companies who will take people to the peaks regardless of their experience level. This crush of people coupled with their inexperience creates an environment much more susceptible to hazards and death.
The case of climbers dying from hazards while trying to summit Mount Everest or other peaks is very different from casualties from other types of hazards. This is because the exposure to these hazards is voluntary, where as most other hazard deaths come from involuntary exposure. The avalanche on Mount Manaslu was an instance of voluntary exposure to an  what CNN calls an "objective hazard -- a risk that you cannot control and one all climbers must accept."

Here is an article about how deaths can happen on Mount Everest and other Himalayan Peaks.
Here is a video from CNN about the rescue effort on Mount Manaslu.

Ninth Hantavirus Case from Yosemite

A ninth case of the deadly hantavirus that originated in Yosemite has been identified. Hantavirus is a disease that of transmitted to humans through the feces and urine of rodents. According to the LA Times, this ninth case of hantavirus was less severe then the previous cases. This person was diagnosed with hantavirus infection, and the disease did not progress to the more deadly hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. Three people who were infected with hantavirus pulmonary syndrome have already died.

The infection have been traced to a tent cabin campsite in Yosemite National Park. Yosemite has warned 3100 people of potential hantavirus exposure by mail and recently warned an additional 230,000 people by email. According to the Yosemite website there is a park safety alert in effect.

According to the CDC, hantavirus begins with flu like symptoms and muscle spasms. In fatal cases of hantavirus the patients die from fluid buildup in the lungs. The CDC also has a guide for safely dealing with rodents to prevent the transmission of hantavirus.

Diseases definitely constitute an environmental hazard because they pose a potential threat to humans and their welfare. Since hantavirus is not communicable between humans and is not a widespread disease it can't be classified as a disaster, but these outbreaks do raise questions about our ability to deal with deadly diseases.

These are the tent cabins in Yosemite where 9 people were infected with hantavirus. Photo from the LA Tims.

New England's not-so-rare Tornadoes

This past weekend two, that's right two, tornadoes struck the United States, but they didn't uproot any trailer homes in the lower Midwest. Instead they terrorized Brooklyn, and the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, both in New York City. Few injuries and no casualties were reported. Above is a picture from the Associated Press that shows the funnel cloud in Breezy Point. The tornadoes were part of a line of storms that swept across all of New York state this week.
According to the NBC article tornadoes were "once exceedingly rare in New York, but they have occurred with regularity in recent years." It is unclear if this increase in storms is attributed to global warming but there does seem to be a correlation between warmer temperatures and increased NY tornadoes.
CNN has an video of the formation of one of the tornadoes.
While the NYC tornadoes were the strangest of this weeks weather events, another tornado struck Oklahoma and killed 4 people.

Baby Krakatau has a Baby Eruption

The Anak Krakatau volcano in Indonesia had a minor eruption over the weekend. The volcano shot out a 400 foot cloud of ash. Indonesian scientists are warning people to stay away from the volcano which sits by itself in the Sunda Strait, but that nearby island villages are safe.
The Anak Krakatau volcano was "born" in 1930. It rose out of the ocean on the site of the infamous Krakatau volcano which violently erupted in 1883 and killed 36,000 people. Anak Krakatau literally means "Child of Krakatau."
Volcanic eruptions are an environmental hazard that has no correlation with human activity. Krakatau's 1883 eruption was an early modern tragedy that will not be paralleled in this century. Hopefully this little outburst from Baby Krakatau is all that happens to Indonesia.
For more information check out the source article from Newsday.com.

To learn more about Krakatau (or Krakatoa as it is sometimes called) and volcanoes in general the Discovery Channel has a great interactive resource and volcano creator.