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Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

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Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#151

Post by jtaillon »

soared wrote: post #138
froindt wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That reminds me about stories of people trying to record nature untouched by man-made sounds. It has become increasingly difficult to find locations which are purely nature. I wonder how much easier it has become since the number of people generating "work noise" has fallen so much? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/sep/24/machine-...

Maybe in Europe, but in the US there is a ridiculous amount of untouched space a <20 miles from almost every major city with the exception of California and the north east.

Surprisingly, this isn't really true (as far as noise is concerned). Noise pollution travels far, and if you're using sensitive equipment, you can easily pick up the noise of planes flying nearby at 30,000 ft.

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#152

Post by gowld »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #111
kortilla wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind stricter climate controls wouldn’t even hurt the economy this bad. A harsh carbon tax on all fossil fuels in exchange for COVID-19 to disappear to be gone would be a welcome relief to the economy.

That's true, but I think the point is: people will witness first-hand how reducing pollution and emissions leads to much better environment in the span of weeks . I also hope that there will be some dip in relevant global climate measurements, so there will be something to point to and say: "here's direct empirical evidence that climate change is man-made and that reducing emissions helps mitigate it".

This thread seems to be confusing climate change / carbon (dioxide) with local pollution.

climate change / carbon (dioxide) and carbon taxes are about long-term temperature change due to C02 concentration and the effects of that. COVID-19 isn't changing that in 1 year.

Local pollution is caused by burning gasoline and factory smoke.

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#153

Post by twic »

joshuamorton wrote: post #69
diggan wrote: post #19

The same thing is happening in Barcelona but with boars coming from the forests outside the city, seems to have no correlation with the lock-down/quarantine that is happening (streets of Barcelona are basically empty right now, except for ambulances, police and delivery services) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/04/wild-boar-sigh...

Fun story about this. I once did a night "hike" up to Tibidabo. This wasn't organized or anything, just a few friends and I took a commuter train out of the city to the base of the mountain, semi-stranding ourselves. Then we walked up to the top, slept outside on the hilltop and enjoyed the sunrise the next morning. Tibidabo has an amusement park and a cathedral, so there was a night security guard who was very confu…

> Tibidabo has an amusement park and a cathedral

And a funicular!

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#154

Post by herdrick »

cushychicken wrote: post #128
russell_h wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it’s worth, there aren’t thought to be any brown bears left in California; the closest ones are in Washington or maybe Idaho.

Idaho. There hasn't been a confirmed grizzly bear sighting in Washington since the late 90s. They're presumed to be extinct in WA.

They're there, though. https://www.backcountrychronicles.com/wp-content/uploads/gri...

EDIT: Also https://www.backcountrychronicles.com/grizzly-bear-distribut...

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#155

Post by kortilla »

geddy wrote: post #104
kortilla wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind stricter climate controls wouldn’t even hurt the economy this bad. A harsh carbon tax on all fossil fuels in exchange for COVID-19 to disappear to be gone would be a welcome relief to the economy.

With ya on this one, but what kinds of problems would this cause for people who don't have another option to get to work? Un-doing this ridiculous culture of driving 40 minutes to work will take a lot time. Still, I wholeheartedly agree on the concept. I'm curious as to how to fix the followup problems that will occur from fixing the primary problem.

Honestly, a grotesque carbon tax of 300% on a barrel of oil would only put prices back to where they were before the Russia/Saudi dump.

You’ll find that people will adapt quite quickly as the price ramps up (we can smear over a year if we need to). Carpooling, switching to electric, or just getting a closer job will all suddenly seem very feasible when the numbers are concrete.

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#156

Post by yters »

_jal wrote: post #148
yters wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are able to recognize, anticipate and avert ecological collapse. No other animal can do this. The rest of the animal kingdom can only adapt, at best.

I think you both overstate human understanding of ecological systems and desire to maintain them. Humans mostly tend to radically reshape local ecosystems for their own ends, at times collapsing them. Aside from some very local remediation successes here and there (which are more repair jobs than preservation), I'm unaware of any evidence that humans have "recognized, anticipated and averted" any of note. Do you have…

Farming and agriculture is ecological creation on a grand scale, and responsible for much of human flourishing, along with the animals and plants we cultivate.

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#157

Post by thdrdt »

There are multiple documentaries about "What if people suddenly leave earth?".

All those movies show how fast nature will take over. Within 10-14 days animals will be walking everywhere.

So I am not surprised we see animals moving into cities.

And it is also true a lot of animals are already around but are very shy. So we don't notice them but they are already around.

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#158

Post by rplst8 »

aeturnum wrote: post #27

The "earth is healing, we are the virus" narrative is overblown (and ecofascistic), but it's good to remember that humans are not special. We push other life forms out of our spaces, but many of those life forms continue a marginal existence. The end of humanity would not be the end of life and being reminded of that is a useful check on our tendency to put ourselves at the center of "the" world (instead of just the…

The end of humanity would not be the end of life, right now.

However it's only a matter of time until something large collides with Earth and destroys it all.

Like it or not humans are the best chance this planet has to continue life on after a cataclysmic event by hopefully colonizing another planet.

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#159

Post by etrk »

as-j wrote: post #37

As an early morning runner in SF, I see coyotes in SF every week or two, including at Twin peaks as mentioned in the article. One morning in Golden Gate Park I warned a few people walkings dogs since there were about 4 coyotes around the corner. From my first hand experience, I'd assume any wooded area with cover in SF has a coyote living there.

Coyote sightings were a regular occurrence on my NextDoor feed long before the quarantine.

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#160

Post by TeMPOraL »

gowld wrote: post #152
TeMPOraL wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true, but I think the point is: people will witness first-hand how reducing pollution and emissions leads to much better environment in the span of weeks . I also hope that there will be some dip in relevant global climate measurements, so there will be something to point to and say: "here's direct empirical evidence that climate change is man-made and that reducing emissions helps mitigate it".

This thread seems to be confusing climate change / carbon (dioxide) with local pollution. climate change / carbon (dioxide) and carbon taxes are about long-term temperature change due to C02 concentration and the effects of that. COVID-19 isn't changing that in 1 year. Local pollution is caused by burning gasoline and factory smoke.

I was talking both. They're related - local pollution does local damage to the environment; climate change is bad because it does damage to the environment everywhere simultaneously.

I don't expect COVID-19 to show up too strongly in temperature graphs, but I hope some of its effects show up somewhere with large enough effect size that we have a statistically significant dip in the chart to point to as direct evidence that human activity is causing this, and changes are meaningful to fixing it.

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