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Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

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11–20 of 121 posts

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#11
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can just google the headline and you will find a Forbes article about it.

It's an article on "Forbes sites", though. It's the equivalent of sort-of-trusted bloggers. Seems Forbes really don't care about their online brand anymore.

Personally, I would see who the writer on Forbes is, rather than just dismiss the entire Forbes website.

For example, I read articles published on Forbes by "Starts With a Bang" (an astrophysicists) and "GrrlScientist" (a biologist) because I have read their articles previously published from other sites before they moved to Forbes and enjoy what they write.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#14
post #7

I've seen people calling him out the use of the word "sanctuary" and suggesting that this is really just sanctuary for taxes, not bees. As a pre-emptive counterargument, there's nothing saying that all 124 acres of his ranch can or should host bees. There are tons of arguments for not wanting the hives near the house, other outbuildings, or anywhere animals are kept, for example. It may be that only 26 acres or so (a…

I've yet to see an argument for why using tax incentives to coerce good outcomes from people is even a bad thing

The typical argument is that "tax incentives", whether positive or negative, ultimately come from other people's hard work and money. And those people may not agree with you (the benevolent distributor of incentives) on what "good outcomes" are.

TL;DR: People have their own, often highly idiosyncratic ideas about what's worthwhile and how they want to spend their money.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#15

That's nice, but the honeybee population is not declining. https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/88117/err-246.... http://time.com/4885569/honeybee-population-increase/ https://www.agprofessional.com/article/bee-population-rising...

Is the wild bee population also increasing, or is the increase due to the beekeeping "industry" (as it is termed in your [1])?

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#16
post #7

I've seen people calling him out the use of the word "sanctuary" and suggesting that this is really just sanctuary for taxes, not bees. As a pre-emptive counterargument, there's nothing saying that all 124 acres of his ranch can or should host bees. There are tons of arguments for not wanting the hives near the house, other outbuildings, or anywhere animals are kept, for example. It may be that only 26 acres or so (a…

I've yet to see an argument for why using tax incentives to coerce good outcomes from people is even a bad thing

Because it can easily be corrupted since you can’t define “good outcome”, and it’s impossible to prosecute quid pro quo for a wink and nod deal since there isn’t sufficient evidence.

In a democracy, the government exists to provide a set of services agreed upon by the people for the benefit of all the people, many times via their elected representatives. Roads, educational facilities, welfare, military, all of those expenses don’t disappear because someone decided to donate something.

If you want tax dollars to support a cause, then vote for it. And there’s no reason tax deductions should be given to support your own little tribe.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#17
post #8

Near my house there is what you could call a insect ”sanctuary”. When it was established a few tears ago we kind of shrug our shoulders and did not think much of it. But the amount of new flowers and insects popping up, not only inside but also around the area is astonishing. I almost see it as a positive feedback loop with more insects, better pollination, more diverse flowers, more insects... Just as pesticides cou…

Could you describe the sanctuary nearby? We live on a typical city lot, and I am going to try to become a mini-sanctuary over the next few years and would love working examples.

Be careful of your city bylaws. I grew a wildflower garden in my backyard in Canada and got a complaint once. Given that the neighbour to one side asked be to do it makes me think it might have been the neighbour on the other side :-) I actually didn't mind cutting it down because I was moving that year anyway, but it pays to talk with your neighbours and find out what the city requires. It is especially important to understand what is and is not a noxious weed and to be on top of keeping them out of your sanctuary.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#18
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an article on "Forbes sites", though. It's the equivalent of sort-of-trusted bloggers. Seems Forbes really don't care about their online brand anymore.

Personally, I would see who the writer on Forbes is, rather than just dismiss the entire Forbes website. For example, I read articles published on Forbes by "Starts With a Bang" (an astrophysicists) and "GrrlScientist" (a biologist) because I have read their articles previously published from other sites before they moved to Forbes and enjoy what they write.

This particular author seems to just be starting out on their career. I could only find 2 other articles authored by them on the internet. The article itself is pretty light and is mostly quoting twitter and pre-existing interviews on on a talk show.

Can you trust it? Hmmm... Well, you could check up the Twitter postings to see if they are real :-). Not sure if there is much to trust...

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#19

That's nice, but the honeybee population is not declining. https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/88117/err-246.... http://time.com/4885569/honeybee-population-increase/ https://www.agprofessional.com/article/bee-population-rising...

That's nice, but none of those articles address wild populations.
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