131–140 of 212 posts
On some bright news. Thanks to declining American manufacturing (thanks China) The Detroit River has bounced back. Giant 'river monster' fish found in Detroit River may be over 100 years old https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/07/us/sturgeon-fish-intl-scli/in...
https://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/visitors/bonneville_ha...
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When the dam was built, they didn’t know they were cutting off the fish from it’s only spawn point in the world (it was discovered later). Still, there’s an argument to be made for building a bypass or fish ladder in every single new and existing dam regardless of what the current expected impact is.
I have issues with comprehending how that wasn't factored in from the start. Then I remind myself most of humanity history is characterized by a marked tendency toward anthropocentrism, and I cease being surprised. What surprises me now even more was that there were designs for fish ladders even as far back as the 19th century.
My guess: a political, hasty, rush to success to curry favor and clout drove bad decisions regarding a massive government project. Is that not the way of public bureaucracy, universally?
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> The article also talks that its not only happening in China these old paddlefish species are endangered all over the globe. What remarkable a looking fish, it looks more like a shark with a very elongated nose. Well, pat-on the-back progress aside of their 'efforts', I feel that this is in-line with not just the CCP's outview on the World, but Humanity in general. Biodiversity be damned (no pun intended) if it stan…
To call the Yangtze dam a "short term gain" is ... short sighted. Now, I can't speak to the effectiveness of the dam, but its goals and objectives were literally epic in scope. But to understand the goals, you have to understand the history, and that history stretches so far back that it merges with legend... Legend has it that one of the early great kings of china was 大禹 (Yu the Great). But what made him great? Was…
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Or the cool "Salmon cannon" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z3ZyGlqUkA
Am I seeing that right, they have a guy stand there, pick fish up, and load them in to a pressurised cannon? I wad expecting something a bit more sophisticated/under the fish's control, even given the name!
>In 2003, Wei and colleagues attached a tracking tag to a Chinese paddlefish that was accidentally captured near Yibin, in south-central China. They released it to see where it might go, but within hours lost all signals from the tag. That was the last of the species ever seen alive.
Dams should not be considered “clean” energy. They’re environmental disasters. Both upstream and downstream.
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There are no organizations in China that oppose the government openly. At least not for long. The Chinese government has roving vans that execute dissidents and harvest their organs right outside their house. The CCP cares about the environment insofar as it benefits China. They probably do not care about a fish going extinct the way we do.
That sounds highly suspect: "The Chinese government has roving vans that execute dissidents and harvest their organs right outside their house."
And some of those have been dissidents.
Organ harvesting for executed victims has happened in the past. Officially, the practice has ended but there is no way to verify.
China executes a lot of people.
On some bright news. Thanks to declining American manufacturing (thanks China) The Detroit River has bounced back. Giant 'river monster' fish found in Detroit River may be over 100 years old https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/07/us/sturgeon-fish-intl-scli/in...
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There are numerous vertebrate species with only a few thousand (or fewer) extant members. Many have been greatly reduced over the 20th century, some have been on a long decline before that. Some have been small / relict / outlier populations for much or all of human history. Whether this means the bottleneck hypothesis is overstated, or that we're looking at a tremendous number of bottlenecks, isn't clear.
The reproductive strategy of a species also matters. Species that produce hundreds or thousands of young (and then winnow down to the survivors) are better at quickly "breeding out" genetic flaws (if 50% of the young die, it's not a big deal), and have an easier time recovering from population bottlenecks. Vs large mammals where raising one genetically-hobbled offspring (who then dies, or fails to reproduce) is a hug…
I recall visiting the Yangtze river by boat tour around 1997. This was before the dam was built and the place was beautiful. Imagine the grand canyon but it was covered with lush vegetation. We visited a center where there were models of the three gorges dam would soon to be built. On the tour they said we would be the last tourists to see the Yangtze as it stands, after the dam, many landmarks/settlements would be f…
Peter Hessler writes about his experience in Sichuan during the time the three gorges dam was being built [1]. Many people have had to sacrifice a lot for these dams. However, IIRC many receive some form of compensation from the government (adequate or not). [1] https://www.amazon.com/River-Town-Years-Yangtze-P-S/dp/00608...