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Just 29k Western Monarch butterflies are left in California

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Re: Just 29k Western Monarch butterflies are left in California

#11
post #9

Maybe worth noting: we've lost about half of Earth's wildlife in the past 40 years. [1] [1] https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/wwf-report-reve...

From 1978 to 2018, the human population grew from 4.3 billion people to 7.6 billion people. That's over a 44% increase.

The last 2 years alone, the human population increased by 1.2 billion.

Re: Just 29k Western Monarch butterflies are left in California

#13
post #9

Maybe worth noting: we've lost about half of Earth's wildlife in the past 40 years. [1] [1] https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/wwf-report-reve...

From 1978 to 2018, the human population grew from 4.3 billion people to 7.6 billion people. That's over a 44% increase. The last 2 years alone, the human population increased by 1.2 billion.

We are currently at 7.8 billion.

1.2 billion people ago was 2006 or 2007.

Re: Just 29k Western Monarch butterflies are left in California

#14

I used to mock organic food and it's proponents, there's absolutely no nutritional benefits, but watching the sixth major extinction[0] on Earth unfold, caused by us, it's hard to justify the widespread use of pesticides. We have a responsibility as the sentient beings here to protect all these things, they nourish us, they keep ecosystems and everything we need to survive in balance, small they may be, yet hold so m…

organic food won't help with extinction. if we switched to organic food we would have to plow down the remaining rain forest to feed the same number of people we do now

Or we could reduce our meat consumption. Americans eat nearly 100kg of meat per person per year. Twice as much as the Chinese and still nearly 50% more than Europeans. Not to mention the average Indian who eats less than 4kg per year.

Re: Just 29k Western Monarch butterflies are left in California

#15
post #4

I used to mock organic food and it's proponents, there's absolutely no nutritional benefits, but watching the sixth major extinction[0] on Earth unfold, caused by us, it's hard to justify the widespread use of pesticides. We have a responsibility as the sentient beings here to protect all these things, they nourish us, they keep ecosystems and everything we need to survive in balance, small they may be, yet hold so m…

Unfortunately organic labeled food has no guarantees of being better for the ecosystem: https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~lhom/organictext.html

While this matches everything that I know, and I have no reason to doubt the information on that page, i would love to have a concise summary like that with more citations than a single paper from 1992.

Re: Just 29k Western Monarch butterflies are left in California

#16
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

organic food won't help with extinction. if we switched to organic food we would have to plow down the remaining rain forest to feed the same number of people we do now

Or we could reduce our meat consumption. Americans eat nearly 100kg of meat per person per year. Twice as much as the Chinese and still nearly 50% more than Europeans. Not to mention the average Indian who eats less than 4kg per year.

A push towards cured meats could help with this... my meat consumption last week was a 4oz pack of prosciutto. Way more tasty than a hunk of beef, and if I continue at that rate for a year I'd consume less than 6kg overall. And it's not like I'd get sick of prosciutto, there are all sorts of cured meats with interesting and unique flavor profiles to choose from.

Re: Just 29k Western Monarch butterflies are left in California

#18
I'm part of a group that is developing RNAi-based pesticides [1]. One of the biggest advantages of such a technology (even relative to organic pesticides like Bt toxin) is the ability to target pests in a highly specific manner and avoid non-target organisms such as monarch butterflies and honey bees. There are likely many factors influencing insect population declines, but hopefully this and similar technologies as part of an integrated pest management strategy will offer a lot of benefit.

[1] https://www.oecd.org/chemicalsafety/pesticides-biocides/conf...

Re: Just 29k Western Monarch butterflies are left in California

#19
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately organic labeled food has no guarantees of being better for the ecosystem: https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~lhom/organictext.html

This is off topic, but that website is designed terribly. I thank Mozilla for Firefox reader view in times like these.

It's a ~username website, it looks exactly as you should expect it to.

Re: Just 29k Western Monarch butterflies are left in California

#20
post #16
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or we could reduce our meat consumption. Americans eat nearly 100kg of meat per person per year. Twice as much as the Chinese and still nearly 50% more than Europeans. Not to mention the average Indian who eats less than 4kg per year.

A push towards cured meats could help with this... my meat consumption last week was a 4oz pack of prosciutto. Way more tasty than a hunk of beef, and if I continue at that rate for a year I'd consume less than 6kg overall. And it's not like I'd get sick of prosciutto, there are all sorts of cured meats with interesting and unique flavor profiles to choose from.

I'm not gonna go searching, but quite certain cured meats are strongly linked to high cancer risks.
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