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Saving Canada's only desert

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Re: Saving Canada's only desert

#61

Post by ommunist »

oneloop wrote: post #21
ommunist wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is because social parasites, calling themselves 'environmentalists' want their piece of taxpayers money, no matter how bullshit their ideas are. They have to pay for college for their kids, sort of. And the mortgage. Do not get me wrong, I worked with US EPA, Environment Canada, Japanese JICA and swedish SSNC on a number of projects. I know what I am talking about. Humanity is not geological force. Everything ch…

I have two issues with your comment: A) You provide no evidence for your major claim (that the people fighting change are doing it for selfish motivations). Neither in general, nor in the case of this specific desert. B) Even if the _motivations_ for doing something were selfish, it could be that the actual environmental concerns themselves were valid. Don't get me wrong, the phenomenon that you speak of (social para…

"people fighting change are doing it for selfish motivations" Eat this: https://mothersagainstwindturbines.com/2014/06/30/greenpeace...

"The Indian Express reports that the Intelligence Bureau submitted a report to the prime minister’s office saying Greenpeace was “negatively impacting economic development” through political activism and its anti-fossil fuels agenda. The reports says that Greenpeace activities have reduced the country’s GDP by 2 to 3 percent a year."

And to be precise about the topic - it is Lael Parrott's selfish interest to finance her 'research' in Okanagon that stinks from this PR article.

Re: Saving Canada's only desert

#62

Post by ommunist »

Interesting, why this main stakeholder in this "desert issue" removed their financial reports from their website? http://vpfinance.ubc.ca/reporting/ So the link about budget of this respected institution from http://www.ubc.ca/about/ is dead! Very suspicious. So who this Lael Parrott is? https://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/author/lael-parrott-2/ Famous in modelling ancient Maya ecological footprint. Professor of Sustainability. Are you god damn serious about giving any credit to this kind of 'research'?

Re: Saving Canada's only desert

#63

Post by ommunist »

codesterling wrote: post #16
happyslobro wrote: post #9

Our only desert? There is a small desert in Yukon, as well: Carcross Desert. At least by my definition of a desert: wind blown sand dunes with little patches of hardy shrubs and scrawny trees. Maybe the fact that it formed from a lake bed makes it not a real desert?

Sounds like some swaths in Saskatchewan. Even the badlands in Alberta has areas like that. I wonder what the distinctions are?

I was wrong. I admit that. Saskatchewan does not have Lael Parrott - Professor of Sustainability.

Re: Saving Canada's only desert

#64

Post by ommunist »

pipio21 wrote: post #11

There is the opposite problem, which for me is way more serious: The desert growing. In Spain it grows each year in the South East. But Spain's desert is small compared to Sahara's, that is as big as Europe. Its dunes are as big as buildings, with pictures you can't really grasp the enormity of this dessert. When Sahara grows each year it literally engulfs entire villages. In Egypt and center of Africa there are citi…

The desert growing? Move your family off there. You cannot stop desert growing. You need a degree of social cohesion and education of the adult population they have in Israel to manage consequences of long heavy drought.

Re: Saving Canada's only desert

#65

Post by ommunist »

wodenokoto wrote: post #54
pipio21 wrote: post #11

There is the opposite problem, which for me is way more serious: The desert growing. In Spain it grows each year in the South East. But Spain's desert is small compared to Sahara's, that is as big as Europe. Its dunes are as big as buildings, with pictures you can't really grasp the enormity of this dessert. When Sahara grows each year it literally engulfs entire villages. In Egypt and center of Africa there are citi…

Currently a wall of forest is being planned to stop the desertification of southern Africa. The accompanying satellite photo on the wikipedia article is quite telling of the enormous size of the desert. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Green_Wall

"a wall of forest is being planned to stop the desertification of southern Africa". Very interesting, no kidding. Who is planning that? The last successful country in such endeavour is Kazakhstan. And to certain extent - China. Making 'wall of forest' is a programme with planning horizon of more than 50 years. I'd like to know the name of stakeholders.

Re: Saving Canada's only desert

#66

Post by ommunist »

DennisP wrote: post #58
pipio21 wrote: post #11

There is the opposite problem, which for me is way more serious: The desert growing. In Spain it grows each year in the South East. But Spain's desert is small compared to Sahara's, that is as big as Europe. Its dunes are as big as buildings, with pictures you can't really grasp the enormity of this dessert. When Sahara grows each year it literally engulfs entire villages. In Egypt and center of Africa there are citi…

These are different sorts of desert. Canada's is a rare and fragile ecosystem, not a wasteland of lifeless dunes like the Sahara.

Ever been in Sahara? It is far from being lifeless. Plenty of life there. And always was.

Canada's 'rare and fragile' ecosystem is just a PR pont for Lael's Parrott attempt to get finance for another bogus 'research'.

Re: Saving Canada's only desert

#67

Post by Animats »

That area is just the northern tip of a larger "desert" area in Washington State. There's plenty of "desert" in that area. It's just mostly on the other side of the border.

It looks more like Silicon Valley in dry season than a real desert.

Re: Saving Canada's only desert

#68

Post by wodenokoto »

ommunist wrote: post #65
wodenokoto wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently a wall of forest is being planned to stop the desertification of southern Africa. The accompanying satellite photo on the wikipedia article is quite telling of the enormous size of the desert. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Green_Wall

"a wall of forest is being planned to stop the desertification of southern Africa". Very interesting, no kidding. Who is planning that? The last successful country in such endeavour is Kazakhstan. And to certain extent - China. Making 'wall of forest' is a programme with planning horizon of more than 50 years. I'd like to know the name of stakeholders.

So apparently Africa has a union not unlike the early EU [1] and they are in charge of it, as prominently mentioned in the wikipedia article above.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Union

Re: Saving Canada's only desert

#69

Post by jghn »

Animats wrote: post #67

That area is just the northern tip of a larger "desert" area in Washington State. There's plenty of "desert" in that area. It's just mostly on the other side of the border. It looks more like Silicon Valley in dry season than a real desert.

"a real desert"

What does that look like? Antarctica is the largest desert in the world, does it look like "a real desert"?

Re: Saving Canada's only desert

#70

Post by fatbird »

oneloop wrote: post #52
oneloop wrote: post #12

I see in some places people are trying to stop deserts from turning into something else and in other places people are trying to stop something else from turning into deserts. Are we always trying to stop things from changing, and a posteriori inventing arguments for why that particular change is bad? (Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all change is equally indifferent either)

Follow up to the above comment. After making this comment two users (dogma1138 and ommunist) showed up that reinforce my point. On one side, according to dogma1138 (it appears from his comments) that any change to the environment is inherently bad. Talk about change and he will quickly point out the loss of lives. I asked several times whether there were any exceptions from this and got no compromise. On the other si…

You have failed to understand dogma1138's point. He wasn't denying that change can be good, he was refusing to engage an oversimplification you were presenting. They're not the same thing, and your attempts to present binary questions are what derailed the productive discussion.
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