Iceland's attempts to replant its forests • Hacker News Board

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#81

Post by mitchtbaum » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 3:31 PM UTC

Alex3917 wrote: post #74

mitchtbaum wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That rewards those who can creatively find a way to shop at Amazon despite taxes more so than it rewards those who can creatively plant trees despite every other hurdle to do so.

I was proposing a chaga tax, not an Amazon tax. I was just using Amazon as an example of a retailer since they sell it.

I thought chaga was a typo. Do you mean "chaga" the mushroom?

Anyway, I meant my point about a key problem in general with trying to use taxes to fund important development projects.

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#82

Post by lucaspiller » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 3:33 PM UTC

mythz wrote: post #37

The most interesting part of this article is its amazing photography.

Yeah this is one place where the autoplay videos are well done. Still, it would be nice to have a way to turn it off, if you are on a limited data connection.

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#83

Post by briholt » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 3:34 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #76

ckinnan wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is actually a similar problem in the Northeastern United States. Deer are overpopulated (in my area 6x traditional level) because they have no predators and hunting is restricted. The deer eat all of the hardwood saplings. In many mid-Atlantic forests there are very few 10-20 year old hard wood trees, they don't survive the deer.

There's a really interesting article about how Yellowstone (a national park in the US) reintroduced wolves into the ecosystem, reducing the dear population, altering the ecosystem for the better: https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wolf-reintroduc... https://youtu.be/ysa5OBhXz-Q

Then the farmers started shooting the wolves. Circle of life.

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#84

Post by godshatter » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 3:35 PM UTC

selectodude wrote: post #75

zeveb wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except, as I indicate in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15515968 , the images are extraordinarily low-res with JavaScript turned off. 'Well, turn it on!' is certainly one solution, but of course enabling JavaScript doesn't just let me view images (something HTTP & HTML do just fine anyway), but also enables execution of potential malware, tracking & other nastiness.

There are upsides and downsides to enabling Javascript. If you want to enjoy the NYT rich web content, you need to have it on. Just the way it is.

Not the person you were replying to, but if they want to sabotage my experience because I don't wish to be tracked or infected with malware, then that's their business I guess. I hope they don't expect me to think delightful thoughts about them for doing it.

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#85

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 3:37 PM UTC

Simon_says wrote: post #63

avar wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, half of it is on the North American continental plate, but those don't determine what constitutes a continent. If they did half of Japan would be in North America.

Don't leave us in suspense! What does determine what constitutes a continent?

[deleted]

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#86

Post by cromulent » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 3:38 PM UTC

vram22 wrote: post #79

cromulent wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got any more reading for this? Just back from Iceland so I am interested in this stuff right now. This is the only one I found, which doesn't seem to indicate a significant change. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2851789/

Search for "Medieval Warm Period" in this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland Happened to be reading about Iceland (and its cuisine :) recently.

Thanks. My understanding was that the MWP is thought to be localized to Europe, not Greenland and Iceland.

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#87

Post by rom16384 » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 3:38 PM UTC

zeristor wrote: post #17

So is this a case of terraforming Iceland?

It wouldn't be the first time an island had been terraformed, from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena:

"Between 1791 and 1833, Saint Helena became the site of a series of experiments in conservation, reforestation and attempts to boost rainfall artificially.[5] This environmental intervention was closely linked to the conceptualisation of the processes of environmental change and helped establish the roots of environmentalism."

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#88

Post by zeveb » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 3:41 PM UTC

selectodude wrote: post #75

zeveb wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except, as I indicate in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15515968 , the images are extraordinarily low-res with JavaScript turned off. 'Well, turn it on!' is certainly one solution, but of course enabling JavaScript doesn't just let me view images (something HTTP & HTML do just fine anyway), but also enables execution of potential malware, tracking & other nastiness.

There are upsides and downsides to enabling Javascript. If you want to enjoy the NYT rich web content, you need to have it on. Just the way it is.

I hope that JPEGs don't count as 'rich web content'!

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#89

Post by mattrices » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 3:42 PM UTC

amorphid wrote: post #11

> As a result, Iceland is a case study in desertification, with little or no vegetation, though the problem is not heat or drought. About 40 percent of the country is desert, Dr. Halldorsson said. “But there’s plenty of rainfall — we call it ‘wet desert.’” At first I thought it was an error to call an area that gets plenty of rain a desert. I thought desert was strictly defined by the amount of rainfall. But maybe th…

The soil type in iceland has volcanic parent material with very high carbon content that results in a low nitrogen to carbon ratio so has little nutrients available to support biomass production without adjustments.

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#90

Post by Alex3917 » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 3:43 PM UTC

mitchtbaum wrote: post #81

Alex3917 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was proposing a chaga tax, not an Amazon tax. I was just using Amazon as an example of a retailer since they sell it.

I thought chaga was a typo. Do you mean "chaga" the mushroom? Anyway, I meant my point about a key problem in general with trying to use taxes to fund important development projects.

> Do you mean "chaga" the mushroom?

Yes, because it only grows on birch trees, but harvesting the mushroom can damage the trees. That was sort of the point. :-)