Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Where have all the insects gone?

newyorker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 299 posts

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#271

Post by therealdrag0 »

SuoDuanDao wrote: post #248
lotsofpulp wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible for there to be so many more vehicles than decades before that the number of insects hitting each car is much less?

Insects getting better at avoiding cars in a much shorter time than we'd expect would certainly be a prediction of Sheldrake's 'morphic resonance' theory.

The comment above yours was not saying what you're saying.

They were saying, IIUC, that it could be that the same amount of bugs are splattered across a larger number of cars, so that if you look at any one car, then it looks like less bugs.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#272

Post by TaylorAlexander »

0x0nyandesu wrote: post #253
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it’s very bad and it doesn’t have to be that way. The mass chemical use must be profitable but there is a great cost to the land and the environment to do so. This is why it is so upsetting that Bill Gates is pushing this kind of chemical intensive farming all over Africa and positioning himself to profit off the transition too. Once again harming the continent and its people for profit while telling them it’s go…

What exactly is he going to really profit on? Guy is 65. Has said he's not leaving much to his kids. So I guess it's all going to a trust????

He is the single largest owner of farmland in the US. There are many ways to profit from this, with some options being to rent it or sell it.

I don't really know why billionaires do what they do, but he is investing in all that land for some reason.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#273

Post by kfprt »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #202
amriksohata wrote: post #200

Albert Howard an English botanist observed Hindu / Indian farmers using Cow pat to fertilise their land. He dubbed this the Indore process, there was no need for toxic pesticides or fertilisers. All this modern science that at the time that was supposed to improve farming actually destroyed our biodiversity and insects.

> All this modern science that at the time that was supposed to improve farming actually destroyed our biodiversity and insects. What is the distinction between “modern science” and “science”? Are you claiming that the development of the Haber-Bosch process and other fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, and fungicides did not increase yields? What is “improve farming”? It does not seem to be a small feat to go from…

I'd say modern science is concerned with selling something while science is the discovery of what currently exists.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#274

Post by JadeNB »

0x0nyandesu wrote: post #253
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it’s very bad and it doesn’t have to be that way. The mass chemical use must be profitable but there is a great cost to the land and the environment to do so. This is why it is so upsetting that Bill Gates is pushing this kind of chemical intensive farming all over Africa and positioning himself to profit off the transition too. Once again harming the continent and its people for profit while telling them it’s go…

What exactly is he going to really profit on? Guy is 65. Has said he's not leaving much to his kids. So I guess it's all going to a trust????

65 leaves a lot of life for a guy with the money to get the best health care.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#275

Post by toomanybeersies »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #192
pengaru wrote: post #129

Last year I had a jarring experience driving through some of the agricultural land near the Salton Sea en route to Bombay Beach coming down from JTNP, taking back roads. The general region is desert, water and food is scarce, but through this agricultural zone there's this dense pocket of food and water on the surface. I was in a Miata with the top down, and the amount of chemicals they were using to keep the pests/i…

Yes it’s very bad and it doesn’t have to be that way. The mass chemical use must be profitable but there is a great cost to the land and the environment to do so. This is why it is so upsetting that Bill Gates is pushing this kind of chemical intensive farming all over Africa and positioning himself to profit off the transition too. Once again harming the continent and its people for profit while telling them it’s go…

Since 1990, when the number of people living in extreme poverty peaked at 1.9 billion, we have been on the steady march towards eradicating extreme poverty. Despite the fact that there are almost 6 billion more people alive today than at the turn of last century, the number of people living in extreme poverty has reduced from 1.3 billion to 730 million [1]. Despite its flaws, the Green revolution and the modern system of agriculture has saved billions of people from starvation.

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty#the-number-of-peo...

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#276

Post by dredmorbius »

silicon2401 wrote: post #201
foxhop wrote: post #176

We used technology to make the earth sick. The insects are fleeing to safe havens in places like my small backyard. Seriously all I did was stopped mowing, and instead use simple nudges to guide the manifestation of a natural system! So much abundance here, with some practice we all can make habitats for humans and animals (including attracting animals and humans by growing tasty food). We will rebuild stronger toget…

I used to want a backyard wildlife refuge until I realized this also means having a backyard refuge for ticks. I'd love to know if there's a way around this

Encourage possums.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#277

Post by dredmorbius »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #269
WalterBright wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use any fertilizer or *cides on my lawn. I do mow it once every month or so. When I walk down the driveway in the summer, there's a constant hum of insects. The only pesticide is a line of diatomaceous earth around the house to keep the ants from setting up shop inside.

Do the ants come up to your skeletal wall of ancient ancestors and flee in fear?

DE disagrees with any invertebrate with an exoskeleton through physical mechanisms.

It ultimately dessicates insects (and other invertebrates) that come in contact with it. It is safe for mammals.

Example with a cockroach: https://youtube.com/watch?v=lAKQO7duPHU

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#278

Post by TaylorAlexander »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #275
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it’s very bad and it doesn’t have to be that way. The mass chemical use must be profitable but there is a great cost to the land and the environment to do so. This is why it is so upsetting that Bill Gates is pushing this kind of chemical intensive farming all over Africa and positioning himself to profit off the transition too. Once again harming the continent and its people for profit while telling them it’s go…

Since 1990, when the number of people living in extreme poverty peaked at 1.9 billion, we have been on the steady march towards eradicating extreme poverty. Despite the fact that there are almost 6 billion more people alive today than at the turn of last century, the number of people living in extreme poverty has reduced from 1.3 billion to 730 million [1]. Despite its flaws, the Green revolution and the modern syste…

It's a popular narrative, but one that Jason Hickel argues falls short. He disputes the poverty thresholds used in these calculations as far too low - $1.90 per day today is lower than the consumption of 19th century US slaves, he argues:

https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2021/3/28/extreme-poverty-i...

As far as the Green Revolution, again this story that is has saved millions from starvation is a popular one. But we can look at Vandana Shiva for example who says it became a way for multinational corporations to take over the farms and food systems of India, leading to mass farmer suicides, erosion of the soil, and poisoning the land:

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/3/30/seeds-of-suicid...

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#279

Post by mistrial9 »

goatlover wrote: post #263
mistrial9 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insects are seriously part of eco-system, what part of that is not important? pp remarkably off-topic and additionally self-defeating.

There's a Radiolab episode about a subspecies of butterfly that only lives on and around this one US military base, and the 20 years of effort one ecologist spent trying to save the species. The ecologist admits that nothing else depends on that butterfly for existence, but it's still worth saving because of a moral obligation we have for making it endangered. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL2ZlZWRzLndueWMu…

so this story is amplified, so that those predisposed to this outlook have something to carry around..

> spending 20 years of resources

this overly-simple, too simple, example of one person and "the military" is not at all representative of say, the Bison and praries, or frogs and freshwater. And who are the most prolific polluters in the Federal Government, and who is famous for "20 years of resources wasted for no result" .. ?

Its just as abrasive to hear this pre-baked conclusion, as for others to hear the actual truth of say, entire regions of coral going extinct.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#280

Post by saberdancer »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #192
pengaru wrote: post #129

Last year I had a jarring experience driving through some of the agricultural land near the Salton Sea en route to Bombay Beach coming down from JTNP, taking back roads. The general region is desert, water and food is scarce, but through this agricultural zone there's this dense pocket of food and water on the surface. I was in a Miata with the top down, and the amount of chemicals they were using to keep the pests/i…

Yes it’s very bad and it doesn’t have to be that way. The mass chemical use must be profitable but there is a great cost to the land and the environment to do so. This is why it is so upsetting that Bill Gates is pushing this kind of chemical intensive farming all over Africa and positioning himself to profit off the transition too. Once again harming the continent and its people for profit while telling them it’s go…

"An NBC News analysis also identified Gates as the largest farmland owner in the US.

Almost 300,000 acres is a lot of land for one family or private individual to own, but it’s still just a small part of the estimated 911 million acres of farmland in the US." - https://www.vox.com/recode/22528659/bill-gates-largest-farml...

Not sure what is the point of this "Bill Gates is single largest holder of US farmland" narrative. It seems like a conspiracy theory in the making.

When put into perspective, amount of farmland he owes is not that big, if it was in a single square it would be 20x20 miles.

Post reply on HN